Quelle attitude - Grammar
French: AQA A Level, topic 5.3.4
The pluperfect tense in French
The pluperfect tense is used in French to talk about an action which is finished but it took place before another event. This is something that had happened before something else.
Format
- If you want to use the pluperfect tense to say what had happened, this is formed in the same way as the perfect tense using an auxiliary verb AVOIR or ETRE.
- However, this is put into the imperfect tense rather than the present tense before the past participle is added to it.
With AVOIR
If your verb takes the auxiliary verb AVOIR:
You need the verb AVOIR in the imperfect tense plus the past participle of your verb to form the pluperfect tense.
- J’avais + past participle
- Tu avais + past participle
- Il/elle/on avait + past participle
- Nous avions + past participle
- Vous aviez + past participle
- Ils/elles avaient + past participle
With ÊTRE
- If your verb takes the auxiliary verb ÊTRE:
- You need the verb ETRE in the imperfect tense plus the past participle of your verb to form the pluperfect tense.
- J’étais + past participle
- Tu étais + past participle
- Il/elle/on était + past participle
- Nous étions + past participle
- Vous étiez + + past participle
- Ils/elles étaient + past participle
- If your verb takes ÊTRE as its auxiliary verb, you need to make sure that the past participle ending agrees with the subject pronoun.