Finally, an action that takes place before another one (Quand je me suis réveillée, mon père était déjà parti travailler = When I woke up, my father had already left for work).This is a very simple overview of the use of the plus-que-parfait in French, obviously it can be more complex than this but this is what you need to understand and wrap your head around before moving on to anything else. Secondly, in a hypothetical or wishful situation of the past (Si j'avais eu une voiture, je serais allé a la France = If I'd had a car, I would have gone to France). Firstly, when talking about a completed, irreversible action in the past (Michel avait travaillé toute la nuit = Michel had worked all night). For example, James n'avait pas dormi = James had not sleptOlivia et Michael étaient arrivés en avance = Olivia and Michael had arrived early.There are three key uses of the plus-que-parfait in French.
#What is the plus que parfait plus#
This is a compound tense, aka formed of the auxiliary verb (the 'imparfait' form of avoir or être) plus the past participle of the main verb. You use it to talk about when something HAD happened (had + past participle). Il avait beaucoup voyagé à l'étranger et s'était rarement reposé.First of all, these more complex tenses are often very complicated and difficult so do not feel discouraged if you do not understand them initially, but once you do you will be using the plus question parfait left-right-and centre!Simply, the plus que parfait translates to the past perfect (or pluperfect) in English. In a story : Mon grand-père était très fatigué. → basically, it's like the English "had + verb" (he WAS tired (in the past) but BEFORE this past moment, he had travelled and had never rester) Il avait beaucoup voyagé à l'étranger et s'était rarement reposé. I.e : Quand j'étais petit, j'ai voyagé en Allemagne. Plus-que-parfait : to express the past compared to a past event. → roughly, but not completely, comparable to "have/has + verb" (i.e "have been.) (now you have them, it has a link to the present) (the sense is roughly the same as above, but here, the action and experience of living there is more importance that the state of having been there) I.e : Quand j'étais jeune, j'ai habité trois ans à Lyon. It the past tense we use the more commonly, especially while speaking. It can also be used for something you have just done that has a link to the present, or simply something you did in a recent past. Here the emphasis is not so much put on describing, but rather on talking about an experience. Passé composé : to speak, in the present, of an action you have done in the future. → quite similar to "was/were + -ing" (description) but also used for "I would + verb" or "I used to + vb" (old habit that lasted) (an action that lasted)Īvant, je faisais du karaté tous les samedi. For French Online Classes Send Your Queries 9625352899 ( WhatsApp Only )About this video :In this episode of 'French Lessons by Indu', She explains the Pas. I.e : Quand j'étais jeune, j'habitais à Lyon. The endings of the conjugated forms of the verb are as follows: -ais. This is true for both regular and irregular verbs. The stem is obtained by dropping the -ons ending of the nous form of the present tense of the verb. In primary school, French pupils are taught that it is the "temps de la description". Le plus-que-parfait is a simple tense in the past the conjugated verb consists of a stem and an ending. Le passé antérieur is used in conjunction with le. In fact, le passé antérieur is the literary version of le plus-que-parfait. Imparfait : to describe a past action that lasted over time or a repetitive action in the past. Answer (1 of 3): They are very similar in that they both are used to express an action in the past that happened before another action.