French Perfect Infinitive: après avoir fini, être parti

The perfect infinitive is avoir or être in the infinitive plus a past participle. It names something the subject has already done: Après avoir mangé, il est parti. - After eating, he left. English often hides it behind an -ing form; French usually spells it out with avoir or être.

The perfect infinitive is on the AQA A-level grammar list at AS. If you only need après avoir at GCSE, the short version is on the same-subject rule page; this page is the full system.

How to form it

Take the passé composé and put the auxiliary back into the infinitive. The avoir or être choice does not change.

The glosses: having finished, having left, having got up.

With a pronominal verb the reflexive pronoun still matches the subject, even though the infinitive has no subject of its own. Only the third person uses se.

Après avoir: one subject only

Après + perfect infinitive is the French for after doing. The person who does the infinitive is always the subject of the main verb.

• Après avoir fini son travail, elle est sortie. - After finishing her work, she went out.
• Après être rentrés, nous avons dîné. - After getting home, we had dinner.
• Il est parti après avoir mangé. - He left after eating.

Après manger (no auxiliary) is heard in relaxed speech and survives in set phrases such as après dîner, but write après avoir mangé.

Agreement: three rules, all from the passé composé

Nothing new here: the participle agrees exactly as it would in the passé composé.

The third row is the one people miss. With avoir, the participle agrees with a direct object pronoun placed in front of it, and in a perfect infinitive that pronoun sits in front of avoir:

• Cette lettre ? Je regrette de l'avoir envoyée. - That letter? I regret sending it.
• Ces photos ? Je suis content de les avoir prises. - Those photos? I'm glad I took them.

You often cannot hear the difference (envoyé, envoyée), but you can with pris and prises, and an examiner can always see it.

After verbs and adjectives

Most verbs and adjectives that take an infinitive can take a perfect one when the action is already over. Keep the linking word the verb normally takes.

Two details:

• Merci de works like remercier de: Merci d'être venus ! - Thank you for coming!
• Se rappeler usually takes the infinitive with no de: Je me rappelle avoir vu ce film. - I remember seeing this film. De is also accepted here; only se rappeler de + a noun is avoided.

Verbs of saying and thinking: no de

Verbs that report what someone says or thinks take a bare infinitive, and with one subject the perfect infinitive is the neat written way to say that I did. It is very common in news French.

The infinitive only works when the subject stays the same: Il nie avoir menti. is he denies that he lied. With two different subjects you need a que clause, and nier que usually takes the subjunctive: Il nie qu'elle ait menti. - He denies that she lied. With one subject a que clause is not wrong after verbs of saying (Il affirme qu'il a tout vu.), but the perfect infinitive is the shorter, clearer written choice.

Where ne pas goes

The usual order puts both halves of the negation in front of the whole infinitive. The older order wraps avoir or être, like a finite verb, and is also correct; it sounds more formal.

With an object pronoun, the pronoun stays next to avoir: Je regrette de ne pas l'avoir vu. - I'm sorry I didn't see him. Personne behaves as it does in the passé composé and goes after the participle: Il regrette de n'avoir vu personne. - He is sorry he saw nobody.

Sans avoir, avant d'avoir, pour avoir

Sans + perfect infinitive is without having done:

• Il est parti sans avoir dit au revoir. - He left without saying goodbye.
• Elle a réussi sans avoir beaucoup travaillé. - She passed without working much.

Avant de takes one too, when the deadline is the end of the action: Ne pars pas avant d'avoir fini. - Don't leave before you have finished. Compare Lave-toi les mains avant de manger. - Wash your hands before eating.

Pour is the interesting one. With a present infinitive it gives a purpose. With a perfect infinitive the action is already done, so it cannot be an aim; it usually gives a cause: for having done.

English says punished for lying, with an -ing form, so puni pour mentir is the natural slip. It means punished in order to lie.

Present or perfect infinitive?

The two infinitives split along one line: is the action still happening or ahead, or is it over? A quick test: if English could say having done, French wants the perfect infinitive.

• Je suis fier d'avoir gagné. - I am proud to have won.
• Je suis fier de gagner ma vie. - I am proud to earn my living.

Merci de venir suits an invitation or a guest just arriving; merci d'être venu suits the end of the evening. The same split works with regretter: Je regrette de partir. is I'm sorry to be leaving, Je regrette d'être parti. I'm sorry I left.

Two subjects: après que + indicative

Après + perfect infinitive needs one subject. When the person in the second half is someone else, French uses après que and a full clause. It takes the indicative, because the event is presented as a fact: it has happened, or it surely will.

• Je t'appellerai après qu'il sera parti. - I will call you after he has left.
• Nous mangeons après que les enfants sont couchés. - We eat after the children are in bed.

Après que with the subjunctive (après qu'il soit parti) is everywhere in speech and common in the press, by analogy with avant que, but the Académie française still treats it as an error, and careful writers avoid it. In writing, use the indicative. The future perfect page covers sera parti.

Mistakes English speakers make

And check the subject: if the person after après is not the subject of the main verb, you need après que.

What to do next

1. Write three sentences about yesterday, each starting Après avoir or Après être.
2. Say one thing you regret with je regrette de ne pas avoir.
3. Then read the past subjunctive, which the perfect infinitive replaces when there is only one subject.