Question

French Tutorial: Le plus-que-parfait et le passé du conditionnel

Answer 1

\({\bf{Plus-que-parfait:}}\) or pluperfect, is used to describe past actions that happen before some other past action

ex:

J'avais terminé mes recherches avant d'obtenir mon diplôme. (I had finished my research before my graduation. in this case, both the research and the graduation occurred in the past.)

The pluperfect uses the imperfect of avoir or être, combined with another verb in the past participle form

ex:
J'étais arrivé quand l'avion est parti. (I had arrived when the plane left.)
J'avais décidé de mon avenir avant l'accident. (I had decided my future before the accident.)

The adverbs quand/lorsque (when) and déjà (already) are used to specify the time of certain actions.

ex:
Quand ils ont tout risqué, ils connaissaient déjà les enjeux. (When they risked everything, they already knew the stakes.)

Answer 2

\({\bf{Le~passé~du~conditionnel:}}\) or the past conditional, is used for actions that did not occur, but would have occured under some condition

ex:
Si l'école avait exigé des uniformes, j'en aurais acheté un. (If the school had required uniforms, I would have bought one.)

The past conditional is formed by taking the present conditional of avoir or être, combined with another verb in the past participle

In a typical past conditional statement, an if clause is used to express a condition, and the main clause is used to express the action that would have occured had that condition been met. The if clause is conjugated in plu perfect and the main clause is in past conditional.

ex:

Si vous vous étiez réveillé plus tôt, vous n'auriez pas raté le bus. (If you had woken up earlier, you would not have missed the bus.) Notice how vous étiez réveillé is in pluperfect and vous n'auriez pas raté is in past conditional.

Answer 3

\({\bf{References:}}\)

Rochester, Myrna B. Easy French Step-by-Step, United States, McGraw-Hill Education, 2009, 323-325.

https://www.lawlessfrench.com/grammar/past-perfect/
https://www.lawlessfrench.com/grammar/conditional-perfect-conjugations/

CollinsDictionary for French and English translations

Forvo (https://forvo.com/), a French pronunciation database with samples from native French speakers