I like to use correct grammatical terms. The pluperfect in English is plus-que-parfait in French. Some people prefer to say joining words rather than conjunctions. They prefer describing words to adjectives. I don’t know what they would say for the pluperfect tense, but I think it would take a couple of sentences.
The pluperfect tense is easy in French if you know the perfect tense. I should describe it just in case you have forgotten the meaning of pluperfect, so here are my two sentences (but I will stick to calling it the pluperfect tense). It means 'had' done something as opposed to 'have' done something. It is one step further back in time than the perfect tense. If you know the perfect tense which is formed with the present tense of the auxiliary and a past participle, je suis allé, then for the pluperfect all you do is use the imperfect tense of the auxiliary with the past participle, j’étais alleé.
This means that you do have to know how to conjugate the present and the imperfect tenses of être and avoir but all you need to know after that is the past participle. J’ai lu le livre, or if you are describing a book that you had read, j’avais lu le livre.
A bientôt
About Me
- Michael Gradwell
- I enjoy languages and music and for many years I played folk and classical guitar. I still do, but in recent years the ukulele has been the instrument that I have played the most. I now have an eight-string and a four-string tenor, a concert, a soprano and even a tiny piccolo ukulele. I have many other interests, including a lifelong interest in politics, and because of this I have several blogs, including politics for novices. If you came to this page from one of my blogs and don't know about the others, you may like to check them out. Please feel free to comment on any of the blogs - let me know what you think!
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