We use the plus-que-parfait to talk about an action that occurred before another action in the past. When to use the plus-que-parfait in French Lors du concours de talents, Louise a joué sans fautes un morceau difficile à la flûte.Įlle avait beaucoup travaillé avant de pouvoir jouer le morceau parfaitement.
Learn everything you need to know about the plus-que-parfait tense in French grammar with our quick and easy examples, then test your knowledge in the exercises. The plus-que-parfait is often used when telling stories and anecdotes to provide background information on situations that occurred prior to the main action of the story. We use it to talk about an action or situation that took place before another past action. Let’s use some DRMRSPVANDERTRAMP verbs as examples.Le plus-que-parfait corresponds to the past perfect tense in English. Remember, this will be your helping verb in the plus-que-parfait. Here’s a chart of the verb ÊTRE in the imperfect. He had already looked at himself in the mirror.Īll you need to do is put the helping verb ÊTRE in the imperfect tense and then follow it with a past participle. REFLEXIVE and RECIPROCAL VERBS + DÉJÀ and BIENĪll French reflexive verbs use ÊTRE as helping verb in the passé composé so you need to also use ÊTRE in the plus-que-parfait. Plus-que-parfait with ÊTRE + NEGATION Je n’étais pas devenu(e) actrice. Plus-que-parfait with ÊTRE as helping verb J’étais rentré(e)Įven though the helping verb is ÊTRE we still translate it as HAD in English. SUBJECT PRONOUN AND INFINITIVE OF THE VERB Let’s use regular -ER, -IR and -RE verbs as examples. Here’s a chart of the verb AVOIR in the imperfect. All you need to do is put the helping verb AVOIR in the imperfect tense and then follow it with a past participle. Once you know the passé composé and imperfect tenses the actual formation of the plus-que-parfait is a breeze. Formation of the plus-que-parfait with AVOIR as helping verb Note that they are placed after the first conjugated verb which in this case is the helping verb AVOIR. The adverbs DÉJÀ and BIEN are often used with the plus-que-parfait. Plus-que-parfait with AVOIR and the adverbs DÉJÀ and BIEN J’avais DÉJÀ vendu ma voiture.
That’s a good thing to remember when trying to decide whether you should use the passé composé or the plus-que-parfait. Notice in the English translations you see the word HAD followed by the past participle. Plus-que-parfait with AVOIR + NEGATION Je n’avais pas mangé.
#Avoir plus que parfait how to#
It is important to understand when to use the plus-que-parfait before we begin to look at how to form it. Here are some examples of actions that happened before something else did. Plus-que-parfait with AVOIR as helping verb Included in this lesson: 6 examples using the plus-que-parfait with AVOIR as helping verbĦ examples using the plus-que-parfait with AVOIR + NEGATIONĦ examples using the plus-que-parfait with AVOIR and the adverbs DÉJÀ and BIENįormation of the plus-que-parfait with AVOIR as helping verbĦ examples using the plus-que-parfait with ÊTRE as helping verbĦ examples using the plus-que-parfait with ÊTRE + NEGATIONĦ examples using the plus-que-parfait with REFLEXIVE VERBS + DÉJÀ and BIENįormation of the plus-que-parfait with ÊTRE as helping verb
Click here for a lesson on how to use the plus-que-parfait in third conditional si clauses. In English, this tense is called the PAST PERFECT or PLUPERFECT. In this lesson all of my examples will be short and simple so that you can really focus on this new French tense rather than a lot of unfamiliar vocabulary. Use the French PLUS-QUE-PARFAIT tense when you want to say that an action happened at some point in the past and it happened before something else did. Practice and master forming the plus-que-parfait with this Quizlet study set SUPPORT LLL’S WORK AND GET FRENCH REWARDS