Il était déjà parti: when to use the pluperfect

Use 1: the earlier of two past events

When two things happened in the past, the one that came first goes in the plus-que-parfait. The later one stays in the passé composé or the imperfect.

• Quand je suis arrivé à la gare, le train était déjà parti. - When I got to the station, the train had already left.
• J'avais fini mon travail quand mes amis sont passés. - I had finished my work when my friends came round.
• Elle était fatiguée parce qu'elle n'avait pas dormi. - She was tired because she had not slept.

The tense changes the story. Compare:

Déjà (already) and ne... jamais (never) sit naturally with this tense:

• Elle n'avait jamais vu la mer. - She had never seen the sea.

Use 2: reported speech

When you report in the past what someone said had happened, their passé composé normally becomes a plus-que-parfait, as English I have finished becomes he said he had finished.

The glosses: He said he had finished. She said she had arrived late. They said they had seen the film. The whole shift, present to imperfect and future to conditional too, is on reported speech.

Use 3: si j'avais su

After si, the plus-que-parfait imagines a past that did not happen. The result goes in the past conditional (aurais or serais + participle):

• Si j'avais su, je ne serais pas venu. - If I had known, I would not have come.
• Si tu m'avais écouté, tu n'aurais pas fait cette erreur. - If you had listened to me, you would not have made that mistake.

Si j'avais su is worth learning whole: it is the everyday French for had I known.

Si stays whole before j'. It shortens only before il and ils: S'il avait su, il serait venu. - If he had known, he would have come. All three si patterns are on si clauses.

Mistakes English speakers make