The Plus-que- Parfait
Is used to talk about what someone had done or what had occurred before another past action, event or state. Like the passé composé the Pluperfect uses a form of avoir or être - in this case, the imparfait - plus a past participle.
Voter - to vote
j'avais voté
tu avais voté
il/elle avait voté
nous avions voté
vous aviez voté
ils/elles avaient voté
Finir- to finish
j'avais /étais fini
tu avais /étais fini
il/elle avait /était fini/fini/finie
nous avions /étions fini/finis
vous aviez /étiez fini/finis
ils/elles avaient /étaient fini/finis/finies
Nous lui avons dit qu’Hollande avait gagné les élections.
We told her that HOllande had won the election
L’accusé sourait parce que les juges ne l’avaient pas mis en prison.
The accused was smiling because the judges had not put him in prison.
The verbs of motion that take être instead of avoir as the auxiliary verb in the passé composé. Use the imparfait of être to form the plu-que- parfait of such verbs and make the past participle agree with the subject.
Les avocats ne savaient pas que vous étiez déjà partie.
the lawyers didn’t know that you had already left
On a découvert que les victimes étaient mortes à la suite de leurs blessures.
They discovered that the victims had died of their injuries.
Use the imparfait of être as the auxiliary for reflexive and reciprocal verbs. Make agreement whenever you would do so for the passé composé
Avant le dîner, le président et sa femme s´étaient levés pour recevoir les invités.
In all other cases as well, agreement of past participles in the plus-que-parfait follows the same rules in the passé composé
La police a trouvé les armes qu’il avait cachées.
the police found the weapons that he had hidden
Le président a signé la loi que le congrès avait approuvée.
The president signed the law that the congress had passed.
Use the plus-que-parfait to emphasize that something happened in the past before something else happened. use the passé composé to describe completed events in the more recent past and the imparfait to describe ongoing or habitual actions in the more recent past.
action in remote past....connected action in recent past
L’activiste n’avait pas fini de parler quand vous avez coupé le micro
the activist hadn’t finished talking when you cut off the mic.
ongoing action in recent past... action in remote past.
Il y a avait des drapeaux partout parce que le président était arrivé la veille.
There were flags everywhere because the president had arrived the day before.
The plus-que-parfait is also used after the word si to mean if only...(something else had taken place). it expresses regret.
Si j’avais su que tu avais un plan
If only I had known you had a map
Si seulement il n’était pas arrivé en retard.
If only he hadn arrived late
To say that something had just happened in the past, use a form of venir in the imparfait + de+ the infinitive of the verb that describes the action
Je venais de raccrocher quand le téléphone a sonné de nouveau.
I had just hung up when the phone rang again.
Le président venait de signer l’accord quand on a entendu l’explosion.
the president had jsut signed the treaty when we heard the explosion.
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