Subjunctive pluperfect
The subjunctive pluperfect is a tense that is mostly used in literature in the third person singular, and this is its main difficulty. It allows us to express an uncertain action that is in principle carried out at the moment of speaking.
Je ne pensais pas qu'il eût terminé à temps.
In a sentence where the main proposition is at the imperfect of the indicative, we use the subjunctive pluperfect in the subordinate to remain consistent with the concordance of tenses.
In order to be able to form the subjunctive pluperfect, it is necessary to know how to conjugate the auxiliaries "avoir" and "être" to the imperfect subjunctive and how to form the past participle. The main difficulties with the subjunctive pluperfect come from its limited use in literature and from the agreements with the past participle. Note the circumflex accent with "it": il eût fini and il fût parti.
Here is an example of a verb conjugated in the subjunctive pluperfect with auxiliaries "avoir" and "être":
| Subject | Auxiliary (avoir) | Past participle (finir) |
|---|---|---|
| que j' | eusse | fini |
| que tu | eusses | fini |
| qu'il | eût | fini |
| que nous | eussions | fini |
| que vous | eussiez | fini |
| qu'ils | eussent | fini |
| Subject | Auxiliary (être) | Past participle (venir) |
|---|---|---|
| que je | fusse | venu |
| que tu | fusses | venu |
| qu'il | fût | venu |
| que nous | fussions | venus |
| que vous | fussiez | venus |
| qu'ils | fussent | 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: "que je fusse 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 subjunctive pluperfect is formed from the auxiliaries "avoir" and "être" conjugated with the imperfect subjunctive to which the past participle is added.
- The use of the subjunctive pluperfect is limited to the third person singular and is mostly found in literature.
- 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.