Le passé antérieur: the Past Anterior in French

What is the passé antérieur?

The passé antérieur is rarely used today – we mostly find it in literary texts. It is the literary equivalent of the plus-que-parfait and is used in relation to the passé simple to indicate that an action occurred before another action in the past.

Learn all about the passé antérieur with Lingolia’s quick and easy examples, then put your knowledge to the test in the exercises below.

Contents

Lorsqu’il eut reçu son premier salaire, Louis courut acheter une guitare pour chanter une sérénade à sa bien-aimée.

When to use the passé antérieur in French

We use the passé antérieur in the same way we use the plus-que-parfait, but in relation to the passé simple rather than the passé composé. That means in the following cases:

  • to talk about a past action that occurred before another action in the past. It makes the order of events clear: the action expressed in the passé antérieur took place before the action expressed in the passé simple.
    Example:
    Lorsqu’il eut reçu son premier salaire, Louis courut acheter une guitare pour chanter une sérénade à sa bien-aimée.As soon as he had received his first pay cheque, Louis rushed off to buy a guitar so that he could serenade his beloved.
  • after the following conjunctions: dès que, aussitôt que, après que, quand, lorsque, une fois que, à peine…que

How to conjugate the passé antérieur

To conjugate the passé antérieur we use the past simple form of avoir or être as an auxiliary verb, followed by the past participle (participe passé) of the main verb.

Person avoir Participle être Participle
1st person singular (I) j’eus

aimé

fini

vendu

 je fus

parti

partie

partis

parties
2nd person singular (you) tu eus tu fus
3rd person singular (he/she/it) il/elle/on eut il/elle/on fut
1st person plural (we) nous eûmes nous fûmes
2nd person plural (you) vous eûtes vous fûtes
3rd person plural (they) ils/elles eurent ils/elles furent

Avoir or être?

For most verbs we construct the passé antérieur with avoir, however être is used as the auxiliary verb in the following cases:

Example:
se lever → Je me fus levé.I had got up.
  • with the following 16 verbs of movement and change of state:
    naître/mourirto be born/to die, aller/venirto go/to come, monter/descendreto go up/to go down, arriver/partirto arrive/to leave, entrer/sortirto enter/to go out, apparaîtreto appear, devenirto become, passerto pass, resterto stay, retournerto return, tomberto fall
    Example:
    Il fut parti à peine avais-je tourné le dos.He was gone as soon as I turned my back.
  • and their derivatives:
    → revenirto come back, rentrerto return (home), remonterto go back up, redescendreto go back down, repartirto leave again, …
    Example:
    Nous fûmes reparties le lendemain.We left the following day.

Info

If the verbs descendreto go down, (r)entrerto enter, (re)monterto go (back) up, retournerto go back, and sortirto leave are used with a direct object, we use the auxiliary verb avoir. This often implies a change in meaning.

Examples:
À quelle heure fus-tu sorti ce matin-là ?What time did you leave that morning?
no direct object, we use the auxiliary être
but: Eus-tu trouvé le manuscrit ?Did you find the manuscript?
find what? le manuscrit is the direct object, we use the auxiliary avoir

For more information on when to use which auxiliary, go to our avoir vs. être page.

Participe passé: the past participle

For regular -er/-ir/-re verbs, the past participle is formed as follows:

  • If the infinitive ends in -er, the participle ends in é
    Example:
    aimer – aimélike – liked
  • If the infinitive ends in-ir, the participle ends in i
    Example:
    finir – finifinish – finished
  • If the infinitive ends in-re, the participle ends in u
    Example:
    vendre – vendusell – sold

For the irregular verbs, however, we have to look up the participle form in the list of irregular verbs or check the verb conjugator – or simply learn the forms by heart.

Agreement of the participe passé

In some situations, the participe passé has to agree in gender and number with either the subject or direct object of the sentence:

  • when a verb takes être as an auxiliary, the past participle has to agree in gender and number with the subject.
    Examples:
    Il fut allé sous le balcon de sa bien-aimée.He had gone under the balcony of his beloved. (subject = masculine singular)
    Elle fut allée sur son balcon.She had gone on her balcony. (subject = feminine singular)
    Ils furent allés acheter une guitare.They had gone to buy a guitar. (subject = masculine plural)
    Elles furent allées ouvrir les fenêtres.They (only women) had gone to open the windows. (subject = feminine plural)
  • when a verb takes avoir as an auxiliary, the past participle only agrees in gender and number when there’s a direct object before the verb. The direct object can be:
    • a noun
      Example:
      La lettre qu’elle eut écrite.The letter that she had written. (direct object = feminine singular)
      la lettre is the direct object and comes before the verb (What had she written? → She had written the letter.)
    • a personal pronoun (me, te, le, la, nous, vous, les)
      Examples:
      Il eut reçu son salaire. → Il l’eut reçu.He had received his first salary. → He had received it. (direct object = masculine singular)
      Il eut reçu sa paie. → Il l’eut reçue.He had received his first pay cheque. → He had received it. (direct object = feminine singular)
      Il eut rencontré les parents de sa bien-aimée. → Il les eut rencontrés. → He had met them. He had met the parents of his sweetheart. (direct object = masculine plural)
      Il eut acheté des méthodes pour apprendre la guitare. → Il les eut achetées. → He had bought them. He had bought books to learn to play guitar. (direct object = feminine plural)
  • the past participle also has to agree when a verb is reflexive (reflexive verbs always take être in the passé composé). In most cases, the participle agrees with the subject.
    Example:
    Nous nous fûmes levés très tôt.We had got up very early. (subject = masculine plural)

    However, there’s no agreement when a direct object comes after the reflexive verb.

    Example:
    Elle se fut lavé les mains.She had washed her hands.
    les mains are the direct object of lavé, no agreement is needed
    → but: Elle se fut lavée.She had washed herself.
    there’s no direct object, so agreement is needed
    Although it’s reflexive, the past participle of the verb se rendre compte (to realise) doesn’t agree with the subject of the sentence. This is because the word compte acts as a direct object.
    Example:
    Elle se fut rendu compte de son erreur.She had realised her mistake.

Important

Remember: the past participle never agrees with an indirect object.

Example:
Marie et Laurent se furent téléphoné.Marie and Laurent had called each other on the phone.
se = indirect object (téléphoner à qui ? → “to whom?”)

For these verbs, se is always an indirect object: se téléphonerto call each other, se parlerto talk to each other, se mentirto lie to each other, se plaire (complaire/déplaire)to like each other, se sourireto smile at each other, se rireto laugh at each other, se nuireto hurt each other, se succéderto succeed each other, se suffireto be enough, se ressemblerto look like each other, s’en vouloirto be annoyed with each other.

With these verbs, se means “to each other”. The action goes to the other person, not on the other person. So se is an indirect object and the past participle never changes.

Signal words for the passé antérieur

The passé antérieur is mostly used in dependent clauses after the following conjunctions:

  • quandwhen
  • lorsquewhen
  • après queafter
  • dès queas soon as
  • aussitôt queas soon as
  • à peine…queno sooner had [sth]…than

How to form the negative with the passé antérieur

In negative sentences with the passé antérieur, the auxiliary verb avoir or être is enclosed by the two parts of the negation (ne…pas, ne…jamais, etc.).

Examples:
Tu eus achevé ton œuvre. → Tu n’eus pas achevé ton œuvre.You had not finished your work.
Nous fûmes partis avant l’aube.→ Nous ne fûmes pas partis avant l’aube.We did not leave before dawn.

With pronominal verbs, negation is formed in a similar way. In the passé antérieur, the negation surrounds the reflexive pronoun and the auxiliary verb.

Example:
Il ne se fut jamais repenti de ses fautes.He never repented for his mistakes.

Go to our page on negation in French for more information and lots of practice exercises.