Question

explain plus que parfait

Answer 1

Plus-que-parfait means that the action has happened further in the past ( a little confusing)

There are two parts that makeup plus-que-parfait: the verb auxiliary (être or avoir) + past participle.

The basic set up to write plus-que-parfait is like this:

the endings for the verb auxiliary (aka helping verb) are

je -ais

tu -ais

elle/il/on -ait

nous -ions

vous -iez

ils/elles -aient 

If the action is negative put “ne (verb) pas” around the first verb.

And you should know how to write the ending for the past participle. If not it goes something like this: Keep the stem of the verb and with -er verbs drop the r and replace it with é. -ir verbs drop the r. -re verbs drop the re and get replaced with u for regular verbs. Obviously there are many irregular cases that you should look up

I hope I didn’t botch the explanation too much.

more help here:

http://laits.utexas.edu/tex/gr/tap9.html

Answer 2

The plus‐que‐parfait (the pluperfect) indicates that an action had taken place and had been completed before another past action took place. The plus‐que‐parfait is the compound form of the imperfect and is formed by using the imperfect of the appropriate helping verb ( avoir or être) + the past participle of the verb. Its English equivalent is “had” + past participle:

J'avais mal à l'estomac parce que j'avais trop mangé. (I had a stomachache because I had eaten too much.)

Il marchait avec peine parce qu'il était tombé. (He walked with difficulty because he had fallen.)

Elle s'était préparée avant de donner sa présentation. (She had prepared herself before giving her presentation.)