Indicative past perfect
The past perfect tense is used to express accomplished facts, generally brief and of a fixed duration, whose action is situated before another action which is itself expressed in the simple past tense. It is generally found in subordinate propositions after a conjunction of time, such as quand, lorsque, aussitôt que, après que...
Quand les joueurs eurent terminé le match, ils prirent une boisson.
It can also be used in a sentence by itself to express a brief action in the past. It is then found accompanied by adverbs such as bientôt, vite, enfin...
Les joueurs se furent rapidement ressaisis.
To be able to form the past perfect tense well, one must know how to combine the auxiliaries "avoir" and "être" in the simple past tense and know how to form the past participle. The main difficulties of the past perfect tense come from the agreements with the past participle and its weak oral use.
Here is an example of a verb conjugated in the past perfect tense with auxiliaries avoir and être :
| Sujet | Auxiliary (avoir) | Past participle (finir) |
|---|---|---|
| J' | eus | fini |
| Tu | eus | fini |
| Il | eut | fini |
| Nous | eûmes | fini |
| Vous | eûtes | fini |
| Ils | eurent | fini |
| Sujet | Auxiliary (être) | Past participle (venir) |
|---|---|---|
| Je | fus | venu |
| Tu | fus | venu |
| Il | fut | venu |
| Nous | fûmes | venus |
| Vous | fûtes | venus |
| Ils | furent | venus |
- It is immediately apparent that the question of the agreement arises. With the auxiliary "être", the agreement is made with the subject from where the "s" came because the subject is put for several people. If it is a woman speaking, an "e" is also added to indicate the feminine: "je fus venue".
- The agreement is more delicate with the auxiliary "avoir" because it is necessary to make the agreement with the direct object complement when it is placed in front and not with the subject.
- The past perfect tense is formed from the auxiliaries "avoir" and "être" conjugated to the simple past tense to which the past participle is added.
- With the auxiliary "être", we agree the past participle with the subject.
- With the auxiliary "avoir", the agreement of the past participle is done with the direct object complement when it is placed in front of it.