How to use the plus-que-parfait (past perfect) in French

Table of Contents

Introduction to the plus-que-parfait (past perfect) in French

The Plus-que-parfait, also known as the pluperfect or past perfect in English, is a past tense in French used to express an action that occurred before another past action. It’s also called the past perfect. It corresponds to the English past perfect tense, like “had done” . It often appears in conjunction with the passé composé or another past tense to provide additional context about the sequence of events in the past. An example;

Il avait déjà mangé quand je suis arrivé
He had already eaten when I arrived

In this example, avait mangé (had eaten) is the plus-que-parfait, indicating that the action of eating occurred before the arrival (suis arrivé) of the speaker.

Formation of the plus-que-parfait

The plus-que-parfait is formed using the imperfect tense of the auxiliary verb avoir or être followed by the past participle of the main verb. Which auxiliary verb you use depends on the last verb. For example manger you use avoir, like in the example above

plus-que-parfait = subject + imperfect of avoir or être + past participle of the verb

Imperfect conjugation of avoir and être

Pronouns	Avoir	Être
Je	avais	étais
Tu	avais	étais
Il/Elle/On	avait	était
Nous	avions	étions
Vous	aviez	étiez
Ils/Elles	avaient	étaient

When to use avoir and when etre?

Sorry, but there is no general rule on when to use avoir or être as an auxiliary verb. Most verbs use avoir, but some use être. You have to learn this with each verb and conjugation tables for verbs often include which auxiliary verb is preferred. Below is a list of French verbs that mainly use être as an auxiliary verb

Aller (to go)
Venir (to come)
Arriver (to arrive)
Partir (to leave)
Rentrer (to return/home)
Descendre (to descend/go down)
Monter (to climb/go up)
Tomber (to fall)
Naître (to be born)
Mourir (to die)
Retourner (to return)
Entrer (to enter)
Sortir (to go out)
Passer (to pass/go by)
Devenir (to become)

What is the past participle?

This doesn’t have to be difficult. The past participle (participe passé) is a kind of non-conjugated form of a verb. Its very simple to make for most regular conjugating verbs. Just remove the last two letters and add an “é”, “i” or “u” on it. So for -re verbs you add an “é”, for -ir verbs an “i” and for -re verbs an “u”.

Regular verbs	Parler (To speak)	Manger (To eat)	Aimer (To love)
Past participle	parlé	mangé	aimé

	Finir (To finish)	Choisir (To choose)	Établir (To establish)
Past participle	fini	choisi	établi

More examples of the plus-que-parfait in sentences

J’avais parlé avant qu’il n’arrive
I had spoken before he arrived

Ils avaient mangé quand nous sommes arrivés
They had eaten when we arrived

Elle avait aimé ce livre avant de le perdre
She had loved this book before losing it

Nous avions fini le travail avant midi
We had finished the work before noon

Tu avais choisi le rouge avant que je ne te dise que j’aimais le bleu
You had chosen red before I told you I liked blue

Ils avaient établi un plan avant que la réunion ne commence
They had established a plan before the meeting started

Read more:

.

Categories