The pluperfect tense in German DAS PLUSQUAMPERFEKT GRAMMATIK The pluperfect tense in German
WHAT IS IT? The Pluperfect Tense sounds complicated but is actually a pretty straight forward German past tense. It is used to describe something that had happened or had been true at some point in the past. In English, you will see the pluperfect used in sentences with a form like “I had gone” or “you’d given”. For example: Wir hatten seinen Geburtstag vergessen. – We had forgotten his birthday. Er war spät nach Hause gekommen. – He had come home late.
HOW TO USE IT? You can use it to sequence actions in the past.
SEQUENCING IN THE PAST… Nachdem ich genug Geld gespart hatte, konnte ich eine Reise nach Asien machen. Petra hat Hunger, denn sie hatte den ganzen Tag gearbeitet.
HOW IS IT FORMED? The pluperfect tense is formed in a similar way to the Perfect tense in that it has two parts: 1) the imperfect tense of the verb haben (to have) or sein (to be) 2) the past participle
MIT HABEN? Pronoun haben Past Participle Translation ich hatte gelesen I had read du hattest you had read er/sie/es he/she/it had read wir hatten we had read ihr hattet sie they had read
MIT SEIN? Pronoun sein Past Participle Translation ich war gefahren I had driven du warst you had driven er/sie/es he/she/it had driven wir waren we had driven ihr wart sie they had driven
BEISPIELE Wir hatten Fußball gespielt. ich hatte meinen Geldbeutel vergessen. Er hatte mir 100€ geliehen. Wir hatten ihm ein Auto gekauft. Du warst spät angekommen. Ihr wart in London gewesen. Sie waren schon weggefahren.