Pluperfect tense

Before reading this section, it would be helpful to read through the pages on perfect tense and the imperfect tense.

How to form the pluperfect

1. A pronoun (‘ich’, ‘du’ etc) or a noun (‘der Hund’ etc)
2. An auxiliary verb (the imperfect tense of either ‘haben’ or ‘sein’)
3. A past participle (which goes at the end of the sentence)

These are exactly the same things you need for the perfect tense. The only difference is the auxiliary verb. Look back at the perfect tense if you need to revise that first.

Auxiliary verbs

The pluperfect uses the imperfect form of ‘haben/sein’.

 

Haben (to have)

Pronoun	Haben (imperfect form)
ich	hatte
du	hattest
er/sie/es/man	hatte
wir	hatten
ihr	hattet
sie/Sie	hatten

 

Sein (to be)

Pronoun	Sein (imperfect form)
ich	war
du	warst
er/sie/es/man	war
wir	waren
ihr	wart
sie/Sie	waren

 

Example of pluperfect with imperfect haben/sein

• Ich hatte Tennis gespielt -> I had played tennis.
• Ich war nach Deutschland gefahren -> I had been to Germany.

Using the pluperfect tense

Sentences using the pluperfect tense often include words like ‘nachdem’ (after), linking two things which happened, usually one before the other, eg:

• Nachdem ich aufgestanden war, habe ich gefrühstückt -> After I had got up, I ate breakfast.
• Bevor ich nach Indien gefahren bin, hatte ich ein bißchen Hindi gelernt -> Before I went to India, I had learnt a bit of Hindi.
• Mein Bruder ist krank geworden, weil er keine Vitamine gegessen hatte -> My brother got sick, because he had not eaten any vitamins.

‘Nachdem’, ‘bevor’ and ‘weil’ are ‘subordinating conjunctions’, which means they send the verb to the end of that clause/sentence.

Common mistakes made by English speakers

• Using the present tense of haben and sein instead of the imperfect.
• Forgetting to stick to the same word order as the Perfect Tense.
• Getting the word order wrong in more complicated sentences.