When is plus que parfait used

A few years later, he had abandoned all hope of literary fame. But he changed his mind when he read the poems to Tammy. She adored the innocent poems that Tex had written during his youth. For example, in French depuis is usually used with the imperfect not the pluperfect and 'had just done something' is generally translated by venir de in the imparfait.

The literary public had been waiting for years for new poetry from Tex when at last he found his inspiration again. In negative sentences , the past participle comes after the second part of the negation pas. We use avoir when descendre, r entrer, re monter, rentrer, retourner and sortir are followed by a direct object. In this case, the meaning of the verb often changes.

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. This agreement is necessary in the following cases:. The exception to this concerns direct objects: the participle does not agree if the reflexive verb is followed by a direct object.

This is because the reflexive pronoun is an indirect object. Although it is reflexive, the past participle of the verb se rendre compte to realise does not agree with the subject of the sentence. In both sentences certain actions precede others; however, only the second sentence seeks to emphasize the precedence of one action.

The plus-que-parfait is used when the speaker needs to position one action with respect to another. When I got home, I had already heard the bad news. The children ate all the cookies that their father had bought. Sometimes the action the plus-que-parfait precedes will not be explicit, but will be implied in the sentence:. The plus-que-parfait is also commonly used in si clauses, with the past conditional:.

I would not have come if I had known he was ill.