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Thepluperfect (shortening ofplusquamperfect), usually calledpast perfect in English, characterizes certainverb forms andgrammatical tenses involving an action from an antecedent point in time. Examples in English are: "wehad arrived" before the game began; "theyhad been writing" when the bell rang.
The word derives from theLatinplus quam perfectum, "more than perfect". The word "perfect" in this sense means "completed"; it contrasts with the "imperfect", which denotes uncompleted actions or states.
InEnglish grammar, the pluperfect (e.g. "had written") is now usually called the past perfect, since it combinespast tense withperfect aspect. (The same term is sometimes used in relation to the grammar of other languages.) English also has apast perfect progressive (orpast perfect continuous) form: "had been writing".
The pluperfect is traditionally described as atense; in modern linguistic terminology it may be said to combine tense withgrammatical aspect; namelypast tense (reference to past time) andperfect aspect. It is used to refer to an occurrence that at a past time had already been started (but not necessarily completed), (e.g. "It had already been raining for a week when the big storm started.").
Bernard Comrie classifies the pluperfect as anabsolute-relative tense, because it absolutely (not by context) establishes adeixis (the past event) and places the action relative to the deixis (before it).[1]
Examples of the English pluperfect (past perfect) are found in the following sentence (fromViktor Frankl'sMan's Search for Meaning):
A man who for yearshad thought hehad reached the absolute limit of all possible suffering now found that suffering had no limits, and that he could suffer still more, and more intensely.
Here, "had thought" and "had reached" are examples of the pluperfect. They refer to an event (a man thinking he has reached the limit of his capacity to suffer), which takes place before another event (the man finding that his capacity to suffer has no limit), that is itself a past event, referred to using thepast tense (found). The pluperfect is needed to make it clear that the first event (the thinking and the supposed reaching) is placed even earlier in the past.
Some languages, likeLatin, make pluperfects purely byinflecting the verb, whereas most modern European languages do so using appropriateauxiliary verbs in combination withpast participles.
Ancient Greek verbs had a pluperfect form (calledὑπερσυντέλικος, "more than completed"). An example isἐτεθύκει, "had sacrificed" – compare the perfectτέθυκε, "has sacrificed". Modern Greek uses auxiliaries to form the pluperfect; examples are given in the table at the end of this article.
InLatin, the pluperfect (plus quam perfectum) is formed without an auxiliary verb in theactive voice, and with an auxiliary verb plus the perfect passive participle in thepassive voice. For example, in theindicative mood:
The subjunctive mood is formed similarly (in this casededisset anddata esset respectively). In many cases anablative absolute phrase, consisting of a noun and perfect participle in the ablative case, may be used in place of a pluperfect; for example:Pecuniis mercatori datis, cessit emptor, "When money had been given (more literally: Money having been given) to the merchant, the buyer left."
InFrench, the indicative pluperfect (Plus-que-parfait, "more than perfect") is formed by taking the appropriate form of the imperfect indicative of the auxiliariesavoir orêtre and adding the past participle,j'avais mangé. Another type of pluperfect (passé antérieur, "past anterior") can be formed with the appropriate simple past form of the auxiliary:j'eus mangé, though it is rarely used now.
| English | French | Tense | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| I went to the library | Je suis allé(e) à la bibliothèque | Passé composé | "suis" is the present conjugation of "être" |
| I had already gone to the library when you arrived to my place | J'étais déjà allé(e) à la bibliothèque quand tu es arrivé chez moi | Plus-que-parfait | In the first clause, "étais" is theimperfect conjugation of "être" |
InItalian, there are two pluperfects in the indicative mood: the recent pluperfect (trapassato prossimo) and the remote pluperfect (trapassato remoto). The recent pluperfect is formed correspondingly to French by using theimperfect of the appropriate auxiliary verb (essere oravere) plus the past participle. For example,Ero affamato perché nonavevo mangiatoI was hungry because I had not eaten. The remote pluperfect is formed by using thepreterite of the appropriate auxiliary verb plus the past participle. In the Italian consecutio temporum, thetrapassato remoto should be used for completed actions in a clause subjugated to a clause whose verb is in the preterite.
The second example may refer to an event that happened continuously or habitually in the past. (I.e. "After I used to find it, I would sell it" OR "After I would find it, I would sell it"). The first example, being the preterite, refers only to actions completed once in the remote past, or distant past.
InJudeo-Spanish, the Latin pluperfect forms with little alteration have been preserved (e.g. final /m/ and /t/ are dropped) to express this tense (pluskuamperfekto), which is identical in form to the imperfect subjunctive. It has a similar form to the Portuguese, thus, the Portuguese example below, in Judeo-Spanish, is:Kuando yegí suve ke mi havermorera, 'When I came I knew that my friend had died'. It remains the main spoken form, though in some varieties, similarly to Spanish or Portuguese, the pluperfect is formed using the auxiliary verbstener oraver plus the past participle. For example,Kuando yegí suve ke mi havertuve morido orKuando yegí suve ke mi haveravía morido.
InPortuguese andGalician, a synthetic pluperfect (mais-que-perfeito orantepretérito) has been conserved from Latin. For example,Quando cheguei, soube que o meu amigomorrera, 'When I came, I found out that my friend had died'. In Portuguese, however, its use has become mostly literary, and particularly in spoken communication, the pluperfect is usually formed using the auxiliary verbter, in the imperfect form (tinha tinhas tinha tínhamos tínheis tinham) plus the past participle. For example,Quando cheguei, soube que o meu amigotinha morrido. A more formal way of expressing the pluperfect uses the verb "haver". For example:Quando cheguei, soube que o meu amigohavia morrido. This periphrastic construction is not permitted in Galician, so Galician uses the synthetic pluperfect exclusively.
InRomanian, the pluperfect (mai mult ca perfect) is expressed without any auxiliary words, using a particular form of the verb, originated in the Latinpluperfect subjunctive[2] (compare Italian imperfect subjunctiveSembravache Elsa nonvenisse with Romanian pluperfectPăreacă Elsa nuvenise). For example, inCând l-am întrebat, elvăzuse deja filmul 'When I asked him, he had already seen the movie'. The verbvăzuse is in the pluperfect form ofa vedea 'to see'. Technically, this form is obtained from the singular third person form of thesimple perfect tense by adding specific terminations for each person and number.However, in northern Transylvania there is a regional way to state the pluperfect (that may reflect the German influence). The pluperfect is expressed by combining the auxiliary verbfost or the short versionfo' (= "was" in English or "war" in German) with the participle, which (quite difficult to explain) is stated in its feminine form. Examples:o fost foastă (oro fo' foastă) = he had been;am fost văzută = I had seen;or fost venită = they had come.[citation needed]
InSicilian, the pluperfect is formed in the standard manner for modern Romance languages, using the verb "to have" inflected into the imperfect tense and a past participle which is invariable according to person and number.[3] However, in thePantesco dialect of the language, an alternative structure using the verb "to be" is found.[4][5] In this structure, the 3rd person singular imperfect of the verb to be (era, "he/she/it was") is used to indicate the pluperferct, which is followed the preterite, conjugated for number and person.[4] This structure has similarities to the pluperfect in Maltese, and therefore it appears likely that the Pantesco form was influenced by the Arabic dialect formerly spoken onPantelleria.[4]
| Sicilian | Pantesco | Maltese | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Auxilliary Verb | Main Verb | Auxilliary Verb | Main Verb | Auxilliary Verb | Main Verb |
| àva have.IMPF.1SG | scrivutu write.PTP.M.SG | era be.IMPF.3SG | scrissi write.PRF.1SG | kont be.PFV.1SG | ktibt write.PFV.1SG |
| àutu have.IMPF.2SG | scrivutu write.PTP.M.SG | era be.IMPF.3SG | scrivìsti write.PRF.2SG | kont be.PFV.2SG | ktibt write.PFV.2SG |
| àva have.IMPF.3SG | scrivutu write.PTP.M.SG | era be.IMPF.3SG | scrissi write.PRF.3SG | kien be.PFV.3SG.M | kíteb write.PFV.3SG.M |
| àva have.IMPF.3SG | scrivutu write.PTP.M.SG | era be.IMPF.3SG | scrissi write.PRF.3SG | kienet be.PFV.3SG.F | kítbet write.PFV.3SG.F |
InSpanish, there are also two pluperfects, being the pluperfect proper (pluscuamperfecto, orantecopretérito) and the so calledpretérito anterior (orantepretérito). While the former uses theimperfect of the auxiliary verbhaber plus the past participle, the latter is formed with thesimple past ofhaber plus the past participle. For example, in pluperfectHabía comido cuando mi madre vino 'I had eaten when my mother came', but inpretérito anteriorHube comido cuando mi madre vino 'I had eaten when my mother would come'. This last form however is rarely used. Sometimes (specially in journalism) the imperfect subjunctive with '-ar' termination can be used with a pluperfect sense in subordinated phrases, but it is neither normative nor recommended.[6]
InDutch, the pluperfect (voltooid verleden tijd) is formed similarly as in German: the past participle (voltooid deelwoord) is combined with the past-tense form of the auxiliary verbhebben orzijn, depending on the full lexical verb:Voordat ik er erg in had,was het al twaalf uurgeworden. -Before I noticed, it had become noon already. In addition, pluperfect is sometimes used instead of present perfect:Dathad ik algezien (voordat jij het zag) - lit.:I had seen that (before you did). The parenthesized part is implied and, therefore, can be omitted.
InEnglish grammar, the pluperfect is formed by combining theauxiliary verbhad with thepast participle of the main verb, as inhad jumped orhad written, often used in its contracted form 'd, as inI'd jumped. It is commonly called the past perfect, being a combination ofperfect aspect (marked by the use of thehave auxiliary with the past participle) andpast tense (marked by the use of the past tense of that auxiliary,had). It is one of a number of analogously formed perfect constructions, such as thepresent perfect ("have/has jumped"),future perfect ("will have jumped") andconditional perfect ("would have jumped").
Unlike the present perfect, the past perfect can readily be used with an adverb specifying a past time frame for the occurrence. For example, it is incorrect to say *I have done it last Friday (the use oflast Friday, specifying the past time, would entail the use of thesimple past,I did it, rather than the present perfect). However, there is no such objection to a sentence likeI had done it last Friday, where the past perfect is accompanied by a specification of the time of occurrence, especially in a context that clearly provides for a connection with another past event, either specified (as inI hadn't met him then.) or implied (as inI hadn't expected that.).[7]
English also has apast perfect progressive (orpast perfect continuous) construction, such ashad been working. This is the past equivalent of thepresent perfect progressive, and is used to refer to an ongoing action that continued up to the past time of reference. For example: "Ithad been raining all night when he awoke." It is also commonly used to refer to actions that had led to consequences in the past (as inI was sleepy because I'd been working all night.).
The past perfect form also has some uses in which it does not directly refer to an actual past event. These are generally in condition clauses and some otherdependent clauses referring to hypothetical circumstances (as in "If I'd known about that, I wouldn't have asked."), as well as certain expressions of wish (as in "I wish I hadn't been so stupid back then.").
InGerman, the pluperfect (Plusquamperfekt,Präteritumperfekt, orVorvergangenheit, lit.pre-past) is used in much the same manner, normally in anachdem sentence. ThePlusquamperfekt is formed with thePartizip Perfekt (Partizip II) of the full lexical verb, plus the auxiliary verbhaben orsein in itspreterite form, depending on the full lexical verb in question.
When using modal verbs, one can use either the modal verb in the preterite or the auxiliary (haben for all modals):
There is a drastic shift of meaning between these variants: the first sentences denote that it "had been necessary" to rain in the past. The second sentence denotes that the speaker assumed that it had rained.
Instandard Swedish, the pluperfect (pluskvamperfekt) is similar to the pluperfect in a number of other Germanic languages, but with a slightly different word order, and is formed with thepreterite form ofha (have in English), i.e.hade (had in English), plus thesupine form of the main verb:När jag kom dithade hangått hem -When I arrived there hehad gone home.
In some of the Slavic languages the pluperfect has fallen out of use or is rarely used; pluperfect meaning is often expressed using the ordinary past tense, with someadverb (such as "earlier") or otherperiphrastic construction to indicate prior occurrence.
Ukrainian andBelarusian preserve a distinct pluperfect (давньоминулий час orзапрошлы час –davńomynulyj čas orzaprošły čas) that is formed by preceding the verb withbuv /bula in Ukrainian andbyŭ /była in Belarusian (literally, 'was'). It was and still is used in daily speech, especially in rural areas. Being mostly unused in literature duringSoviet times, it is now regaining popularity. Here is an example of usage:Ja vžebuv pіšov, až raptom zhadav... (Ukrainian) andJa ŭžobyŭ pajšoŭ, kali raptam zhadaŭ (Belarusian)I almost had gone already when I recalled...
InSlovenian, the pluperfect (predpreteklik, 'before the past') is formed with the verb 'to be' (biti) in past tense and the participle of the main verb. It is used to denote a completed action in the past before another action (Pred nekaj letiso bile vodepoplavile vsa nabrežja Savinje, 'A few years ago, all the banks of Savinja River had been flooded) or, with amodal verb, a past event that should have happened (Moralbi tibil povedati, 'I should have told you'). Its use is considered archaic and is rarely used even in literary language.
InPolish pluperfect[citation needed] is only found in texts written in or imitating Old Polish, when it was formed with past (perfect) tense ofbyć "to be" and past participle of the main verb. The person marking is movable, e.g.zrobił byłem ~ zrobiłem był "I had done".[citation needed] Past tense of the adjectival verbs (powinienem był zrobić "I should have done") and conditional mood (zrobiłbym był "I would have done") are often wrongly considered pluperfect forms – morphologically, the latter is actually past conditional, rarely used in modern Polish.
InSerbo-Croatian, the pluperfect ("pluskvamperfekt") is constructed with the past tense ("perfekt") of the verb to be ("biti") plus the adjective form of the main verb. Alternatively, it can be formed by using the imperfect ("imperfekt") of "biti" with the past participle of the main verb.For example: "Ja sam bio učio" (or: "Ja bijah učio"), which means, "I had been studying".
InBulgarian, the pluperfect (минало предварително време) is formed with the imperfect tense of the auxiliary verbсъм (to be) and the perfect active participle of the main verb.
InWelsh, the pluperfect is formed without an auxiliary verb, usually by interpolating-as- before the simple past ending:parhasem, "we had remained".
InIrish, perfect forms are constructed using the idea of being (or having been)after doing something. In the pluperfect,bhíomar tar éis imeacht, "we had gone", literally, "we were after going".
InFinnish, the pluperfect (pluskvamperfekti) is constructed with an auxiliary verbolla 'to be', which is in the past tense. The primary verbs get the past participle endings-nyt/-nut in singular,-neet in plural forms (the 'n' assimilates with certain consonants) and-ttu/-tty/-tu/-ty in passive forms.\
InKorean, the pluperfect is formed by adding an additional "었". "었" is amorpheme that is analogous to the suffix "ed" in English, in that it is also used to form the simple past tense.Thus
InClassical Nahuatl, the pluperfect is formed by adding-ca(h) to the end of the verb; while close to the average meaning of past perfect, it more accurately reflects an action that has been undone by the time of speaking. For example,ōnicochca roughly translates to "I had slept."
| English | Tamil | German | Dutch | Afrikaans | Latin | Romanian | Portuguese | Spanish | Italian | French | Greek (Modern) | Bulgarian | Macedonian | Polish (very rare) | Ukrainian | Persian | Pashto | Urdu |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I had heard | நான் கேட்டிருந்தேன் | ich hatte gehört | ik had gehoord | ek het gehoor | audīveram | auzisem | (eu) ouvira / tinha ouvido / havia ouvido | había oído / oyera | avevo sentito | j'avais entendu | είχα ακούσει | бях чул | бев слушнал | słyszałem był / słyszałam była | я почув був / почула була | من شنیده بودم | ما اوریدلی وو | میںنے سنا تھا |
| you had heard (sing.) | நீ கேட்டிருந்தாய் | du hattest gehört | jij had gehoord | jy het gehoor | audīverās | auziseși | (tu) ouviras / tinhas ouvido / havias ouvido | habías oído | avevi sentito | tu avais entendu | είχες ακούσει | бе(ше) чул | беше слушнал | słyszałeś był / słyszałaś była | ти почув був / почула була | تو شنیده بودی | تا اوریدلی وو | تمنے سنا تھا |
| he/she had heard | அவன்/அவள் கேட்டிருந்தான்/கேட்டிருந்தாள் | er/sie hatte gehört | hij/zij had gehoord | hy/sy het gehoor | audīverat | auzise | (ele/ela) ouvira / tinha ouvido / havia ouvido | había oído | aveva sentito | il/elle avait entendu | είχε ακούσει | бе(ше) чул/-а/-о | беше слушнал/-а/-о | słyszał był / słyszała była | він почув був / вона почула була / воно почуло було | او شنیده بود | هغه/هغی اوریدلی وو | اسنے سنا تھا |
| we had heard | நாங்கள் கேட்டிருந்தோம் | wir hatten gehört | wij hadden gehoord | ons het gehoor | audīverāmus | auziserăm | (nós) ouvíramos / tínhamos ouvido / havíamos ouvido | habíamos oído | avevamo sentito | nous avions entendu | είχαμε ακούσει | бяхме чули | бевме слушнале | słyszeliśmy byli / słyszałyśmy były | ми почули були | ما شنیده بودیم | مونږ اوریدلی وو | ہمنے سنا تھا |
| you had heard (pl.) | நீங்கள் கேட்டிருந்தீர்கள் | ihr hattet gehört | jullie hadden gehoord | julle het gehoor | audīverātis | auziserăți | (vós) ouvíreis / tínheis ouvido / havíeis ouvido | habíais oído | avevate sentito | vous aviez entendu | είχατε ακούσει | бяхте чули | бевте слушнале | słyszeliście byli / słyszałyście były | ви почули були | شما شنیده بودید | تاسی اوریدلی وو | آپنے سنا تھا |
| they had heard | அவர்கள் கேட்டிருந்தார்கள் | sie hatten gehört | zij hadden gehoord | hulle het gehoor | audīverant | auziseră | (eles) ouviram / tinham ouvido / haviam ouvido | habían oído | avevano sentito | ils/elles avaient entendu | είχαν ακούσει | бяха чули | беа слушнале | słyszeli byli / słyszały były | вони почули були | ایشان شنیده بودند | دوی اوریدلی وو | انہوںنے سنا تھا |
In German and French there is an additional way to construct a pluperfect by doubling the perfect tense particles. This is called doubled perfect (doppeltes Perfekt) or super perfect (Superperfekt) in German[8][better source needed] and plus past perfect (temps surcomposé) in French.[9][better source needed] These forms are not commonly used in written language and they are not taught in school.
Both languages allow to construct a past tense with a modal verb (like English "to have", in German "haben", in French "avoir"), for example "I have heard it". This is largely equivalent to the usage in English. The additional perfect tense is constructed by putting the modal verb ("to have") in the past tense as if being the full verb ("I have had") followed by the actual verb in the past particle mode ("I have had heard it"). The same applies to those verbs which require "to be" (German "sein", French "être") as the modal verb for the construction of the past tense (which would not work in English).
In spoken language in Southern Germany the doubled perfect construction sometimes replaces the Standard German pluperfect construction.
In France it is uncommon in the Northern regions (with Parisian influence) but it can be found widely in Provençal dialects as well as in other regions around the world. In all regions the doubled pluperfect ("I had had heard it") is uncommon although it is possible - all of these forms emphasize the perfect aspect by extending the modal verb so that a doubled pluperfect would add upon the pluperfect in another part of the speech.
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