Le plus-que-parfait: the Pluperfect in French

What is the plus-que-parfait?

The plus-que-parfait corresponds to the past perfect tense in English. We use it to talk about an action or situation that took place before another past action. The plus-que-parfait is often used when telling stories and anecdotes to provide background information on situations that occurred prior to the main action of the story.

Learn everything you need to know about the plus-que-parfait tense in French grammar with Lingolia’s quick and easy examples, then test your knowledge in the exercises below.

Contents

Lors du concours de talents, Louise a joué sans fautes un morceau difficile au violoncelle.

Elle avait beaucoup travaillé avant de pouvoir jouer le morceau parfaitement.

When to use the plus-que-parfait in French

We use the plus-que-parfait to talk about an action that occurred before another action in the past.

This tense is usually used together with another past tense (such as the imparfait, the passé composé or the passé simple) and establishes the order of events: the action expressed in the plus-que-parfairt always occurred before the action expressed by the other past tenses.

Example:
Elle avait beaucoup travaillé avant de pouvoir jouer le morceau parfaitement.She had practised for a long time before she could play the piece so perfectly.

How to conjugate the plus-que-parfait

To conjugate the plus-que-parfait we use the imperfect forms of avoir and être as auxiliary verbs, followed by the past participle (participe passé) of the main verb.

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

aimé

fini

vendu

 j’étais

parti

partie

partis

parties
2nd person singular (you) tu avais tu étais
3rd person singular (he/she/it) il/elle/on avait il/elle/on était
1st person plural (we) nous avions nous étions
2nd person plural (you) vous aviez vous étiez
3rd person plural (they) ils/elles avaient ils/elles étaient

Avoir or être?

For most verbs we construct the plus-que-parfait with avoir, however être is used as the auxiliary verb in the following cases:

Example:
se lever → je m’étais levé.to get up → I’d 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:
    J’étais parti en vacances en France.I’d gone on vacation to France.
  • and their derivatives:
    → revenirto come back, rentrerto return (home), remonterto go back up, redescendreto go back down, repartirto leave again, …
    Example:
    Nous étions repartis le lendemain.We’d left the next 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 avoir. This often implies a change in meaning.

Examples:
À quelle heure étais-tu sorti ce matin ?What time did you go out this morning?
no direct object, we use the auxiliary être
but: Avais-tu sorti les carottes du frigo hier soir ?Did you take the carrots out of the fridge last night?
take out what? les carottes is the direct object, we need to use the auxiliary avoir

For more information on this topic, feel free to visit our avoir vs. être page.

Participe passé: the past participle

For the 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 forms in the list of irregular verbs or check the verb conjugator – or simply learn the correct 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 était allé à l’école de musique.He’d gone to music school. (subject = masculine singular)
    Elle était allée à l’école de musique.She’d had gone to music school. (subject = feminine singular)
    Ils étaient allés à l’école de musique.They’d had gone to music school. (subject = masculine plural)
    Elles étaient allées à l’école de musique.They’d (only women) gone to music school. (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 avait écrite.The letter that she’d written. (direct object = feminine singular)
      la lettre is the direct object and comes before the verb (What had she written? → She’d written the letter)
    • a personal pronoun (me, te, le, la, nous, vous, les)
      Examples:
      Elle avait acheté un tambour. → Elle l’avait acheté.She’d bought a drum. (direct object = masculine singular)
      Elle avait acheté une flûte. → Elle l’avait achetée.She’d bought a flute. (direct object = feminine singular)
      Elle avait rencontré d’autres artistes. → Elle les avait rencontrés.She’d met other artists. (direct object = masculine plural)
      Son père avait acheté des places de concert. → Son père les avait achetées.His father had bought concert tickets. (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 étions levés très tôt.We’d got up very early. (subject = masculine plural)

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

    Example:
    Elle s’était lavé les mains.She’d washed her hands.
    les mains are the direct object of lavé, no agreement is needed
    → but: Elle s’était lavée.She’d 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 s’était 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 s’étaient 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.

How to form the negative with the plus-que-parfait

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

Examples:
J’avais rigolé. → Je n’avais pas rigolé.I didn’t laugh.
Nous étions parties. → Nous n’étions pas parties.We didn’t leave.

With pronominal verbs, negation is formed in a similar way. In the plus-que-parfait, the negation surrounds the reflexive pronoun and the auxiliary verb.

Example:
Tu ne t’étais pas trompé dans ton calcul.You weren’t wrong in your calculation.

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