Pluperfect (Past perfect)
B1Plus-que-parfait (Pluperfect Tense)
The French plus-que-parfait (literally “more-than-perfect”) is the tense you use to talk about an action that had already happened before another past action or moment. In English it usually translates as the past perfect: "had + past participle" (for example, "had eaten", "had left").
What is the Plus-que-parfait?
The plus-que-parfait places one past event before another past event. Think of a simple timeline:
- Earlier past event: plus-que-parfait
- Later past event: passé composé, imparfait, or another past tense
Example:
- "Quand je suis arrivé, il était déjà parti." (When I arrived, he had already left.)
- "était déjà parti" is plus-que-parfait (he had left — earlier past)
- "je suis arrivé" is passé composé (I arrived — later past)
When do I use the Plus-que-parfait?
- To show that one past action happened before another past action: "Il avait mangé avant de partir." (He had eaten before leaving.)
- In reported speech to show an action that was already completed at the time of speaking in the past: "Elle a dit qu'elle avait déjà vu le film." (She said she had already seen the film.)
- In counterfactual past (si-clauses): the if-clause uses plus-que-parfait and the result uses a conditional past: "Si j'avais su, je ne serais pas venu." (If I had known, I wouldn't have come.)
- To give background information or cause in a past narrative: "Il n'a pas pu jouer: il s'était blessé." (He couldn't play; he had injured himself.)
How do I form the Plus-que-parfait?
Choose the auxiliary the same way you choose it for the passé composé: most verbs use avoir; those that use être in compound tenses (movement verbs and reflexive/pronominal verbs) use être.
- Avoir (imparfait): j'avais, tu avais, il/elle/on avait, nous avions, vous aviez, ils/elles avaient
- Être (imparfait): j'étais, tu étais, il/elle/on était, nous étions, vous étiez, ils/elles étaient
Examples (regular verbs):
- Avec avoir: "J'avais mangé." (I had eaten.) — full sentence: "J'avais déjà mangé quand elle est arrivée." (I had already eaten when she arrived.)
- Avec être: "Elle était partie." (She had left.) — full sentence: "Elle était partie avant mon arrivée." (She had left before I arrived.)
- être → été : "Il avait été malade." (He had been sick.)
- avoir → eu : "J'avais eu beaucoup de travail." (I had had a lot of work.)
- faire → fait : "Nous avions fait les courses." (We had done the shopping.)
- prendre → pris : "Elle avait pris le train." (She had taken the train.)
- voir → vu : "Ils avaient vu le film." (They had seen the film.)
- mettre → mis, écrire → écrit, lire → lu, dire → dit, boire → bu, etc.
- Passive plus-que-parfait: auxiliary "avoir" in imparfait + été + past participle (of main verb), and the participle agrees with the subject.
- Example: "La lettre avait été écrite." (The letter had been written.)
- "Les fenêtres avaient été ouvertes par le vent." (The windows had been opened by the wind.)
Agreement with past participles
- "Elle était allée." (She had gone.) — "allée" with -e to agree with feminine subject.
- "Ils étaient partis." (They had left.) — "partis" agrees with masculine plural.
2) With avoir as auxiliary: past participle does not agree with the subject; it agrees only with a preceding direct object.
- No preceding DO: "J'avais mangé la pomme." → "mangé" (no agreement) — "la pomme" follows the verb.
- Preceding DO: "La pomme que j'avais mangée était pourrie." → "mangée" agrees with "la pomme" (feminine singular) because the direct object "la pomme" precedes the verb.
- With pronominal verbs the participle usually agrees with the subject when the reflexive pronoun is a direct object: "Elle s'était lavée." (She had washed herself.)
- If the reflexive pronoun is an indirect object and there is a direct object after the verb, there is no agreement: "Elle s'était lavé les mains." (She had washed her hands.) — "lavé" stays in masculine singular because "les mains" is the direct object after the verb.
- With verbs like "se parler, se téléphoner" where the pronoun is indirect, no agreement: "Ils s'étaient parlé." (They had talked to each other.)
Negative forms and questions
- Put the negation around the auxiliary (imparfait form): "ne ... pas", "ne ... jamais", "ne ... plus", etc.
- "Je n'avais pas vu ça." (I had not seen that.)
- "Elle ne s'était jamais plainte." (She had never complained.)
- Use "Est-ce que" + subject + auxiliary in imparfait + past participle (normal spoken style), or inversion of the auxiliary + subject (more formal).
- Est-ce que: "Est-ce que tu avais déjà fini ?" (Had you already finished?)
- Inversion: "Aviez-vous déjà fini ?" (Had you already finished?)
- For verbs that use être as auxiliary: "Était-elle déjà partie ?" (Had she already left?)
Common mistakes to avoid
- Passé composé describes a past action (often without reference to an earlier past). Plus-que-parfait marks the earlier of two past actions.
- Correct: "Quand je suis arrivé, il avait déjà mangé." (When I arrived, he had already eaten.)
- Wrong: Using passé composé for the earlier action: "Quand je suis arrivé, il a déjà mangé." (This sounds off because "a déjà mangé" places the action next to the present.)
- Use the same auxiliary as for passé composé. Common errors: "Il avait tombé" (wrong) instead of "Il était tombé" (correct).
- Remember the frequent être verbs (movement/state) and reflexives (see DR & MRS VANDERTRAMP list).
- Forgetting to make the past participle agree when using être, or failing to agree when there is a preceding direct object with avoir.
- "Les lettres qu'il avait écrites" (correct) — not "écrits".
- Plus-que-parfait = had done (earlier past). Conditionnel passé = would have done (result of a hypothetical).
- Plus-que-parfait: "J'avais fini avant de partir." (I had finished before leaving.)
- Conditionnel passé: "J'aurais fini si j'avais eu le temps." (I would have finished if I had had the time.)
- In si-clauses for past counterfactuals: use plus-que-parfait in the si-clause, conditional past in the result clause: "Si j'avais su, je t'aurais aidé." (If I had known, I would have helped you.)
Comparisons with other past tenses
- Use plus-que-parfait to say that one past action happened before another past action (passé composé often expresses the later past action).
- "Il avait quitté la maison quand le téléphone a sonné." (He had left the house when the phone rang.)
- Imparfait describes ongoing, habitual or background actions in the past; plus-que-parfait marks completed actions that happened before another past moment.
- Ongoing: "Quand je suis arrivé, elle lisait." (When I arrived, she was reading.)
- Completed earlier: "Quand je suis arrivé, elle avait lu le livre." (When I arrived, she had read the book.)
- Conditionnel passé expresses a hypothetical or a regretted result: "J'aurais accepté si j'avais su." (I would have accepted if I had known.)
- The si-clause uses plus-que-parfait to express the unreal past condition.
Comprehensive set of examples
- "J'avais fermé la porte quand il est entré." (I had closed the door when he came in.)
- "Elle avait déjà terminé son travail quand nous sommes arrivés." (She had already finished her work when we arrived.)
- "Elle s'était levée tôt." (She had got up early.)
- "Ils s'étaient rencontrés l'année précédente." (They had met the year before.)
- "Elle s'était lavé les mains avant de manger." (She had washed her hands before eating.) — no agreement on "lavé" because "les mains" is the direct object after the verb.
- "Si j'avais su, je ne serais pas venu." (If I had known, I wouldn't have come.)
- "Si elle avait étudié davantage, elle aurait réussi l'examen." (If she had studied more, she would have passed the exam.)
- "Il m'a dit qu'il avait déjà fini." (He told me that he had already finished.)
- "La maison avait été construite en 1890." (The house had been built in 1890.)
- Negation: "Nous n'avions pas remarqué l'erreur." (We had not noticed the mistake.)
- Question: "Aviez-vous déjà visité Paris avant ce voyage ?" (Had you already visited Paris before this trip?)
Quick cheat sheet
- Formula: imparfait of avoir/être + past participle. Example: "j'avais + mangé" / "j'étais + parti(e)".
- Use when one past action happened before another past action.
- Use plus-que-parfait in si-clauses for past counterfactuals (result uses conditional past).
- Remember agreement rules: être → agree with subject; avoir → agree only with preceding direct object.
- Common time words: déjà (already), avant (before), après (after), quand (when), la veille (the day before), plus tôt (earlier).
Glossary
- Auxiliary: the helping verb (avoir or être) used to form compound tenses.
- Imparfait: the French past-tense form used here to conjugate the auxiliary (j'avais, j'étais).
- Past participle: the form of the verb used in compound tenses (mangé, parti, fait, vu, etc.).
- Direct object: the noun or pronoun that directly receives the action; agreement with past participle happens when it precedes the verb (with avoir as auxiliary).
- Pronominal verb: a verb used with a reflexive pronoun (se lever, s'appeler) that often uses être in compound tenses.
Final tips
- When you tell a story in the past, use plus-que-parfait to go back in time: it marks the background fact that happened earlier than the main past events.
- If you're unsure whether to use avoir or être, check the passé composé form for that verb: the auxiliary will be the same.
- Practice by spotting the "earlier" action in timelines: the earlier one becomes plus-que-parfait.
If you want, I can give a focussed list of verbs that use être, more example sentences grouped by verb type, or a short reference table of imparfait forms of common auxiliaries.