Pluperfect

The pluperfect — in French le plus-que-parfait (literally "the more-than-perfect") — is the tense you use for an action that was already complete before another moment in the past. In English it is the "had done" tense:

• J'avais mangé avant le film. — I had eaten before the film.
• Elle était partie quand je suis arrivé. — She had left when I arrived.
• Nous avions fini nos devoirs. — We had finished our homework.

The key idea is two past actions in sequence. One of them happened first (that one goes in the pluperfect), and the other happened later (usually in the perfect or imperfect):

Quand je suis arrivé à la gare (later — perfect), le train était déjà parti (earlier — pluperfect). When I arrived at the station, the train had already left.

Think of it as the "past behind the past". If the perfect tense (j'ai mangé — I ate / I have eaten) is one step into the past, the pluperfect is two steps back — it sets the scene that was already true before your story's main events.

Worked mini-example. Decide which verb is pluperfect in: "When I phoned, she had already gone to bed." The phoning happens at the story's moment (perfect: j'ai téléphoné); the going to bed happened earlier, so it is pluperfect: elle était déjà couchée. Full sentence: Quand j'ai téléphoné, elle s'était déjà couchée.

The pluperfect is a compound tense, built from two pieces:

imperfect of the auxiliary (avoir or être) + past participle

This is almost identical to the perfect tense — the only difference is that the auxiliary is in the imperfect instead of the present.

Tense	Auxiliary form	Example
Perfect (passé composé)	present of avoir	j'ai mangé — I ate / have eaten
Pluperfect (plus-que-parfait)	imperfect of avoir	j'avais mangé — I had eaten

Here is the full imperfect of avoir (to have), which you simply slot in front of any past participle:

Subject	avoir (imperfect)	+ participle	English
je (j')	avais	j'avais mangé	I had eaten
tu	avais	tu avais mangé	you had eaten
il / elle / on	avait	il avait mangé	he/she had eaten
nous	avions	nous avions mangé	we had eaten
vous	aviez	vous aviez mangé	you had eaten
ils / elles	avaient	ils avaient mangé	they had eaten

Notice the imperfect endings -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient — the same set used for every verb in the imperfect. Learn them once and the pluperfect (and the perfect, and the conditional perfect) all fall into place.

Worked mini-example. Put finir (to finish) into the pluperfect for "we". Step 1: auxiliary is avoir → imperfect "nous" form = avions. Step 2: past participle of finir (an -ir verb) = fini. Result: nous avions fini (we had finished).

The second half of the pluperfect is the past participle — the very same participle you already use in the perfect tense. For regular verbs it follows the verb-group endings:

Verb group	Rule	Infinitive	Participle	English
-er	drop -er, add -é	manger	mangé	eaten
-ir	drop -ir, add -i	finir	fini	finished
-re	drop -re, add -u	vendre	vendu	sold

A handful of very common verbs have irregular participles that simply must be learned. These appear constantly in exam texts, so memorise them:

Infinitive	Participle	English	Pluperfect example
avoir (to have)	eu (pron. "ü")	had	j'avais eu — I had had
être (to be)	été	been	j'avais été — I had been
faire (to do/make)	fait	done/made	j'avais fait — I had done
prendre (to take)	pris	taken	j'avais pris — I had taken
voir (to see)	vu	seen	j'avais vu — I had seen
mettre (to put)	mis	put	j'avais mis — I had put
dire (to say)	dit	said	j'avais dit — I had said
écrire (to write)	écrit	written	j'avais écrit — I had written
boire (to drink)	bu	drunk	j'avais bu — I had drunk
lire (to read)	lu	read	j'avais lu — I had read

Worked mini-example. Form "they had taken (m.)" : auxiliary avoir → imperfect "ils" = avaient; participle of prendre = irregular pris. Result: ils avaient pris (they had taken).

Most verbs build the pluperfect with avoir, but a small, fixed group uses être as the auxiliary — exactly the same group that uses être in the perfect tense. If you know that je suis allé (I went) uses être, then j'étais allé (I had gone) uses être too. The auxiliary never changes between the perfect and the pluperfect.

Which verbs take être?

• The "house of être" / MRS VANDERTRAMP movement verbs: aller (go), venir (come), arriver (arrive), partir (leave), entrer (enter), sortir (go out), monter (go up), descendre (go down), rester (stay), tomber (fall), naître (be born), mourir (die), retourner (return), and their relatives.
• All reflexive verbs: se laver (wash oneself), se lever (get up), se coucher (go to bed).

Agreement: the participle behaves like an adjective. With être, the past participle agrees with the subject in gender and number — add -e for feminine, -s for plural, -es for feminine plural:

Subject	Pluperfect of aller	English
il (m.)	il était allé	he had gone
elle (f.)	elle était allée	she had gone
ils (m. pl.)	ils étaient allés	they had gone
elles (f. pl.)	elles étaient allées	they had gone

Here is the imperfect of être (to be), which you place before the participle:

Subject	être (imperfect)
je (j')	étais
tu	étais
il / elle / on	était
nous	étions
vous	étiez
ils / elles	étaient

Reflexive verbs also take être, and the participle usually agrees with the reflexive pronoun: elle s'était levée (she had got up), ils s'étaient couchés (they had gone to bed).

Worked mini-example. Form "she had arrived". Auxiliary for arriver = être → imperfect "elle" = était. Participle arrivé must agree with a feminine subject → arrivée. Result: elle était arrivée (she had arrived).

The pluperfect rarely travels alone — it usually appears alongside another past tense to show which thing happened first. Certain signpost words are strong clues that a pluperfect is needed:

Signpost	Meaning	Example
déjà	already	Le film avait déjà commencé. — The film had already started.
quand	when	Quand il est arrivé, nous avions fini. — When he arrived, we had finished.
avant (de)	before	J'ai mangé avant d'arriver, car j'avais préparé un sandwich. — I ate before arriving, because I had prepared a sandwich.
ne … jamais	never (before)	Je n'avais jamais vu la mer. — I had never seen the sea.
parce que / car	because	*Elle avait froid **parce qu'*elle avait oublié son manteau. — She was cold because she had forgotten her coat.

Reported speech and reasons in the past are classic uses. When you explain why something past was the case, the reason often sits one step further back:

Il était fatigué parce qu'il avait travaillé toute la nuit. He was tired because he had worked all night.

Worked mini-example. Translate "I had never visited Paris before this year." Choose the pluperfect for "had never visited": visiter is an -er verb (participle visité), takes avoir, with ne … jamais around the verb. Result: Je n'avais jamais visité Paris avant cette année.