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Plus-que-parfait du subjonctif
The rarest French verb form is the pluperfect subjunctive (aka past perfect subjunctive). It’s a literary tense, meaning that it’s reserved for formal, written French – mainly literature, but also history and journalism.
The pluperfect subjunctive is equivalent to the past subjunctive used in spoken French, shown here (in parentheses).
Par exemple…
| Je craignais qu’il fût parti. (Je craignais qu’il soit parti.) |
I feared he had left. | |
| Elle mentait quoique j’eusse découvert son secret. (Elle mentait quoique j’aie découvert son secret.) |
She was lying even though I’d discovered her secret. |
Because it’s literary, you don’t need to be able to conjugate the pluperfect subjunctive, but you should learn to recognize it, especially if you read classic French literature and poetry.
Pluperfect subjunctive conjugations
The pluperfect subjunctive is a compound verb form, which means its conjugation has two components:
| verb | conjugation | ||
| 1. | auxiliary (avoir or être) | imperfect subjunctive | |
| 2. | main verb | past participle |
Par exemple…
| avoir verb | être verb | pronominal verb | ||
| donner (to give) | sortir (to go out) | s’habiller (to get dressed) | ||
| j’eusse donné | je fusse sorti(e) | je me fusse habillé(e) | ||
| tu eusses donné | tu fusses sorti(e) | tu te fusses habillé(e) | ||
| il eût donné | il fût sorti | il se fût habillé | ||
| elle eût donné | elle fût sortie | elle se fût habillée | ||
| nous eussions donné | nous fussions sorti(e)s | nous nous fussions habillé(e)s | ||
| vous eussiez donné | vous fussiez sorti(e)(s) | vous vous fussiez habillé(e)(s) | ||
| ils eussent donné | ils fussent sortis | ils se fussent habillés | ||
| elles eussent donné | elles fussent sorties | elles se fussent habillées |
The pluperfect subjunctive is identical to the second form of the conditional perfect.
Past participle agreement
As in all compound conjugations, the past participle in the pluperfect subjunctive may need to agree in gender and number with the word it modifies – learn more.
Related lessons
- Subjunctive
- Pluperfect
- Auxiliary verbs: avoir vs être
- Past participle
- Pronominal verbs
- Literary tenses and moods
- Introduction to verbs
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