french

the past.
In French, the plus-que-parfait is formed by conjugating the auxiliary verb in the imparfait and adding the
past participle. So to conjugate je mange (I eat) in the plus-que-parfait, one finds the appropriate auxiliary
verb (avoir), conjugates it (avais) and finds the past participle of manger (mangé). So, the conjugation of Je
mange in the plus-que-parfait becomes j'avais mangé or, in English, I had eaten.
Examples:
À ce moment, j'ai mangé le pain que tu m'avais
donné.
Tu m'avais déjà appelé, lorsque je suis parti.
At that moment, I ate the bread that you had given
me
When I left, you had already called me
General Examples
J'ai parlé français.
Je parlais français.
Nous avons réussi à l'examen. We passed the test.
Il a été mon ami.
I spoke French (on one particular occasion).
I spoke French (during a period of time, and I don't speak French any more).
He was my friend (and he is not my friend any more)
Il était mon ami lorsque... He was my friend when . . .
Ils ont fait leurs devoirs.
Il est venu.
Il vint le lendemain.
Il venait tous les jours.
Il était déjà venu.
They did their homework.
He came (and I don't need to say when)
He came the day after. (this is the passé simple)
He came/used to come every day.
He had already come.
It should be noted that these examples are making use of all the possible past tenses; not just the
plus-que-parfait.
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