UNIT THIRTEEN
Unit 13 The past perfect tense
What is the past perfect tense?
The past perfect tense, also called the pluperfect tense, is one of the three
past tenses in German. It is used when speaking or writing about the past
to refer to events that happened earlier:Gestern traf ich Karl. Wir hattenuns seit 20 Jahren nicht gesehen.
Yesterday, I met Karl. We hadn’t seen each other for 20 years.Formation of the past perfect
The past perfect tense is a compound tense. It is formed with the simple
past tenseofhabenorsein+the past participleof the main verb:Sie aß sehr wenig, denn sie hatteschon zu Mittag gegessen.
She ate very little because she had eaten lunch already.Er wollte Spanish lernen, nachdem er durch Mexikogereist war.
He wanted to learn Spanish after he had travelled through
Mexico.Past perfect with haben
The past perfect for most verbs is formed by using the appropriate simple
pastform of haben+the past participleof the relevant verb. This applies
to regular and irregular verbs that take habenin the present perfect
tense: