Pluperfect tense
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
The pluperfect tense (from Latin: plus quam perfectum more than perfect) is a perfective tense that exists in most Indo-European languages, used to refer to an event that has completed before another past action.
In the sentence "The blind man, who knew that he had risen, motioned him to sit down again" (from Charles Dickens, Barnaby Rudge), "he had risen" is an example of the pluperfect tense. It refers to an event (someone rises from his seat), which takes place before another event (the blind man notices the fact that the other has risen). Since that second event (the blind man's taking notice) is itself a past event and the past tense is used to refer to it ("the blind man knew"), the pluperfect is needed to make it clear that the first event (someone rises) has taken place even earlier in the past.
In the English language, the pluperfect tense is often called the past perfect. It is formed by combining the past tense of the auxiliary verb have with the past participle. Other languages like Latin have special verb forms for the pluperfect tense and do not need to use auxiliary verbs. Thus the Latin equivalent of he had seen is viderat. However, most modern European languages combine auxiliary verbs and past participles:
In German, the Plusquamperfekt is used in much the same manner, normally in a nachdem sentence. The Plusquamperfekt is formed with the Partizip Perfekt (Partizip II) of the full lexical verb, plus the auxiliary verb haben or sein in its preterite form, depending on the full lexical verb in question. For example: Nachdem ich aufgestanden war, ging ich ins Badezimmer. (After I had gotten up, I went into the bathroom.)
In French, the pluperfect (plus que parfait) is formed from the imperfect tense of the appropriate auxiliary verb (être or avoir) plus the past participle. For example, Jean avait déjà éteint l'incendie quand les pompiers sont arrivés. (John had already put the fire out when the fire brigade arrived.)
In Spanish, the pluperfect (pluscuamperfecto) is (similarly) formed from the imperfect tense of the auxiliary verb haber plus the past participle. For example, Había comido cuando mi madre vino. (I had eaten when my mother came.)
In Portuguese, the pluperfect (mais-que-perfeito) has a particular form, needing one single verb to express this tense. For example, Quando cheguei soube que meu amigo morrera. (When I came I knew that my friend had died.)
