37.1 Defining the Passé Antérieur
Like the passé simple, the passé antérieur is used mainly in literary and historical narration. The two often appear together to show the order of past events: the passé antérieur shows what had already happened, while the passé simple tells what happened next.
Quand il eut terminé sa lecture, il referma le livre.
When he had finished reading, he closed the book.
Here, eut terminé is in the passé antérieur because finishing happened first. Referma is in the passé simple because closing the book happened next.
The Past Anterior
The passé antérieur describes an action completed immediately before another past event, in literary and historical narration.
In English, it often translates with "had": had finished, had left, had seen, and so on.
You'll often see it after time expressions such as quand (when), lorsque (when), après que (after), and dès que (as soon as).
37.2 Forming the Passé Antérieur
The passé antérieur uses the same auxiliary rules you learned for other compound tenses: most verbs use avoir, while the House of Être verbs and reflexive verbs use être.
To form the passé antérieur:
Below are the full passé simple conjugations of the two auxiliaries used in the passé antérieur:
| Pronoun | avoir | être |
|---|---|---|
| j' / je | eus | fus |
| tu | eus | fus |
| il, elle, on | eut | fut |
| nous | eûmes | fûmes |
| vous | eûtes | fûtes |
| ils, elles | eurent | furent |
Here is parler fully conjugated in the passé antérieur:
As we learned before, past participles used with être agree in gender and number when required.
37.3 The Passé Antérieur in Context
Here are a few examples showing the passé antérieur with different subjects, auxiliaries, and time expressions:
Dès qu'il eut entendu la nouvelle, il se précipita vers la porte.
As soon as he had heard the news, he rushed to the door.
Après qu'elle fut partie, la maison parut étrangement vide.
After she had left, the house seemed strangely empty.
Lorsque nous eûmes traversé la forêt, le château apparut au loin.
When we had crossed the forest, the castle appeared in the distance.
Practice Time!
Master these verb conjugations from Lesson 37