Plus-que-parfait

Le 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.

How to conjugate the plus-que-parfait in French

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

Agreement of the participe passé

• When a verb takes être as a help verb, the participle agrees in gender and number with the subject.
• For verbs that take avoir in the plus-que-parfait, the participle only agrees in gender and number with a direct object that comes before the verb. This direct object can take three possible forms: a personal pronoun (me, te, la, nous, vous, les), the relative pronoun que, or a noun placed before the verb (usually in questions and exclamations).

☞ Elle avait acheté une voiture → Elle l’avait achetée.