In life, situations often arise when, when describing some action (action) in the past, there is another action that took place somewhat earlier. Accordingly, to reflect this earlier action. in the past an earlier past tense is also necessary. It was precisely in this case that the action that took place earlier. in the past is the German Plusquamperfekt. Plusquamperfekt in its meaning precedes the German tense. Let's consider simple speech examples:

• Petra hat den Pullover gestrickt . – Petra knitted a pullover.
• Petra ist aus dem Urlaub zurückgekehrt . – Petra returned from vacation.

In both examples the perfect is used (past tense, perfect). However, if we combine the events into one text, it turns out that first one action took place, and only after it another: Petra first returned from vacation, and then knitted a pullover. To correctly express this in German, it is necessary to construct statements as follows:

• Petra war aus dem Urlaub zurückgekehrt . Petra hat den Pullover gestrickt .

Now the time sequence of actions is observed, but the proposals are not completely interconnected. To establish this relationship, you need to link data simple sentences into one complex one. This will require a German alliance “after this; after - nachdem.” It is this conjunction that most often links complex sentences with forms (f-mi) of the past and pre-past tenses. In this case, when using Plusquamperfekt as a pre-past tense, the past in a complex sentence will be the simple past Präteritum (this is a grammatically ideal agreement of tenses). The use of perfect fm in such situations (instead of Präteritum) also seems quite possible and is not erroneous, for example:

• Nachdem Petra aus dem Urlaub zurückgekehrt war, strickte sie den Pullover. = Nachdem Petra aus den Urlaub zurückgekehrt war, hat sie den Pullover gestrickt. – After Petra returned from vacation, she knitted a pullover.

From the above examples it is clear that if for the formation of perfect fm auxiliary verbs are placed in Präsens forms, then to form plusquaperfect forms they are placed in Präteritum forms, but in practice Perfect is also widely used.

Plusquamperfekt forms can also be used in the passive voice, For example:

• Nachdem der Bankräuber von der Bezirkspolizei festgenommen worden war, konnten sie nach Hause fahren. – After the bank robber was captured by the regional police, they could go home.
• Nachdem diese leckere Pilzsuppe zubereitet worden war, wurden wir alle zum Mittagessen eingeladen. – After this delicious mushroom soup, we were all invited to dinner.

In general, the past tense phrase Plusquamperfekt is very rarely used in German speech, and it is especially rare to find it in its colloquial version.

Plusquamperfect in German it expresses the pre-past tense and is used when they want to emphasize the relationship of two past actions in time or the causal connection of one action with another.

Plusquamperfekt is usually used in combination with Präteritum. Plusquamperfekt is most often translated into Russian as a perfect past tense verb.

To show this relationship of actions, the words are often used in translation into Russian at the beginning, at first, before, before:

Er hatte die Hotelfachschule beendet, dann trat er in die Universit ät ein. — First (first) he graduated from the school of hotel management, then entered the university.

The most typical case of using Plusquamperfekt in German is the subordinate clause of time with the conjunction nachdem, in which the action expressed by the predicate of the subordinate clause precedes the past action expressed by the predicate of the main clause. The predicate of the subordinate clause is expressed by a verb in Plusquamperfekt, and the predicate of the main clause is expressed by a verb in the preterite:

Nachdem er das Gymnasium beendet hatte, trat er in die Universit ät ein. — After he graduated from high school, he entered the university.

Plusquamperfekt is a complex temporary form. It is formed, like Perfekt, with the help of the auxiliary verbs haben or sein and the participle II of the conjugated verb. The auxiliary verb haben or sein for Plusquamperfekt is used in the form Präteritum.

The rules for choosing the auxiliary verbs haben and sein are the same as when forming Perfect.

Face	With an auxiliary verb haben	With an auxiliary verb sein
ich	hatte gelesen	war gefahren
du	hattest gelesen	warst gefahren
er	hatte gelesen	war gefahren
wir	hatten gelesen	waren gefahren
ihr	hatten gelesen	wart gefahren
sie	hatten gelesen	waren gefahren

Nachdem ich den Brief gelesenhatte , schrieb ich sofort die Antwort. — After I read the letter, I immediately wrote an answer.

Mein Freund schrieb mir , dass sein Bruder vor einem Monat nach Moscow gefahrenwar . — My friend wrote to me that his brother left for Moscow a month ago.

Modal verbs and verbs sehen, hören, fühlen, used with the infinitive of another verb, when forming Plusquamperfekt, have the features that were indicated for the formation of Perfect:

Die Wissenschaftler hatten dieses wichtige Problem l ösen m üssen . — Scientists had to solve this important problem.

Wir hatten unsere Hausaufgabe gestern erf üllen k önnen (wollen). - We could (wanted) to fulfill our homework yesterday.

Examples of using German past tenses in speech:

Den ganzen Sommer verbrachte Irma in ihrem kleinen Landhaus, genoss frische Luft und Einsamkeit. - Irma spent the whole summer in her small country house, enjoying the fresh air and solitude (narrative Präteritum).

Hat dir Irma verraten, wo sie diesen Sommer verbracht hat? - Did Irma reveal to you the secret of where she spent this summer (dialogical Perfekt)?

Wir sind jetzt bei Irma, die uns in ihr gemütliches kleines Landhaus eingeladen hat. - We are now with Irma, who invited us to her cozy little country house (the second act in Perfekt precedes the first in Präsens).

Als wir Irma be suchen wollten, entdeckten wir, dass sie vor ein paar Monaten ihre Wohnung verlassen hatte. - When we wanted to visit Irma, we discovered that she had left her apartment several months ago (the last action in Plusquamperfekt precedes the first two in Präteritum).

To improve your German or prepare for exams, we recommend classes with online tutors at home! All the benefits are obvious! Trial lesson for free!

We wish you success!

If you liked it, share it with your friends:

Join us onFacebook!

See also:

Let's take two simple sentences:

Ich habe die Arbeit beendet. - I finished work.

Ich bin nach Hause gegangen. - I went home.

In both sentences Perfect (perfect tense). All this has already happened, in the past. But the first event (finishing work) happened before the second (going home). Therefore, for the first event you can use double past tense, pre-past tense - Plusquamperfect(which means in Latin more than perfect):

Ich hatte die Arbeit beendet. Ich bin nach Hause gegangen.

To do this, as you can see, you just need to put the auxiliary verb in Präteritum (past tense): ich habe -> ich hatte, ich bin -> ich war.

More often Plusquamperfect used in complex sentences with an introductory word nachdem (after):

Nachdem ich die Arbeit beendet hatte, ging ich nach Hause.

= Nach der Arbeit ging ich nach Hause.

Please note that in the main clause it is used Präteritum(but not Perfect). This is the only case of tense agreement in the German language: in sentences with nachdem(and even then it is not at all mandatory). If one time is compound ( Plusquamperfect because it consists of two verbs: semantic and auxiliary), then the second is simple, consisting of one verb ( Präteritum). Like this:

Nachdem ich nach Hause gekommen war, aß ich zu Abend. - After I came home(in Russian it can be said more simply: coming home), I had dinner.

Nachdem ich gegessen hatte, schaute ich noch ein wenig fern. – After I ate, I watched TV a little more.

Nachdem mein Wagen gestohlen worden war, rief ich die Polizei. “After my car was stolen, I called the police.

In the latter case you see Plusquamperfect Passiv. It remains to add that in addition to proposals with nachdem(and then only if they are talking about the past) the pre-past tense is rarely used, and in colloquial speech it is almost not used at all.

Try it yourself:

Make up sentences with nachdem in the past time:

einen Freund treffen – zusammen ins Cafe gehen (meet a friend – go to a cafe together), im Cafe essen – ein schönes Mädchen sehen – es/sie kennen lernen (wollen) (eat in a cafe – see beautiful girl– to get to know her (to want), es/sie ansprechen – (sie) lächeln (to talk to her – to smile), (wir) sich sicherer fühlen – (wir) sich vorstellen – an ihrem Tisch bleiben (-blieb – geblieben, s) – viel sprechen (-sprach – gesprochen) und trinken (-trank – getrunken) – zusammen singen (-sang – gesungen) – ganz glücklich werden (-wurde – geworden, s) – sich streiten (-stritt – gestritten) – sich schlagen (-schlug – geschlagen) – von der Polizei festgenommen werden – ganz traurig werden (feel more confident – ​​introduce yourself – stay at her table – talk and drink a lot – sing together – become completely happy – quarrel (argue) – fight – be detained by the police - become completely sad).

The plusquaperfect in German expresses the pre-past tense. It is also a complex temporary form. It is formed, like the perfect, with the help of the auxiliary verbs haben or sein and the participle II of the conjugated verb. The auxiliary verb haben or sein for the plusquaperfect is used in the preterite form.

The rules for choosing the auxiliary verbs haben and sein are the same as when forming the perfect.

Verb conjugation in Plusquamperfekt in German

	With an auxiliary verb haben		With an auxiliary verb sein
Unit h.	ich hatte gelesen	I read (read)	ich war gefahren	I was driving (I was driving)
	du hattest gelesen	did you read (read)	du warst gefahren	you went (went)
	er hatte gelesen	he read (read)	er war gefahren	he went (went)
Plural h.	wir hatten gelesen	we read (read)	wir waren gefahren	we went (let's go)
	ihr hattet gelesen	you read (read)	ihr wart gefahren	you went (went)
	sie hatten gelesen	they read (read)	sie waren gefahren	they were driving (they were driving)
Polite form reverse	Sie hatten gelesen	Have you read (read)	Sie waren gefahren	You went (went)

For example:

Modal verbs and verbs sehen, hören, fühlen, used with the infinitive of another verb, when forming the plusquaperfect, have the features that were indicated for the formation of the perfect:

Using the plusquaperfect in German
and its translation into Russian

The plusquaperfect is used in German when they want to emphasize the relationship of two past actions in time or the causal connection of one action with another.

The plusquaperfect is usually used in combination with the present. The plusquaperfect is most often translated into Russian as a perfective past tense verb.

To show this relationship of actions, the words are often used in translation into Russian at the beginning, at first, before, before.

The most typical case of using the plusquaperfect in German is the subordinate clause of time with the conjunction nachdem, in which the action expressed by the predicate of the subordinate clause precedes the past action expressed by the predicate of the main clause. The predicate of the subordinate clause is expressed by a verb in the plusquaperfect, and the predicate of the main clause is expressed by a verb in the preterite.

Plusquamperfect- this long word denotes the pre-past tense. It is usually quite difficult to understand when learning German. In this article we will talk about the formation of time, basic rules, examples, exceptions and give a couple of simple formulas. Everything will fall into place and you will stop getting confused in coordinating times.

RULE: Plusquamperfekt used to express antepast or long past time.

The antecedent tense expresses an action that happened before/previously some other action. For example: When Katya went to the store, we started watching TV.
That is, Katya first bought something, and only then they began to relax. The past is before the past.

When used in writing and speech, Plusquamperfekt expresses the coordination of tenses. (see Rule 1)

RULE 2: Plusquamperfekt implies the creation compound predicate, that is, a predicate that consists of several words (verb + participle).

When do we use the verb HABEN?

The same rule applies here as in the usual one. Let's repeat it again:

The verb haben is combined with:

a) so-called transitive verbs (sehen - look, nehmen - take, lesen - read);
b) reflexive verbs (sich versuchen - try, sich benehmen - behave, sich verabschieden - say goodbye, sich bemühen - try);
c) impersonal verbs (regnen - to go (about rain), schneien - to go (about snow), scheinen - to shine);
d) as well as groups of intransitive verbs, namely:

1. verbs, not indicating movement, but requiring an addition after themselves in the dative case (antworten - to answer, schenken - to give, sagen - to speak, geben - to give, helfen - to help, vertrauen - to trust)

2. verbs, which do not indicate movement and change of state(arbeiten - work, hängen - hang, liegen - lie, sitzen - sit, stehen - stand, etc.)

3. verbs that clearly indicate initial and final stages of the process (anfangen - to begin, beginnen - to begin, aufhören - to stop);

4. Absolutely everything modal verbs and myself haben.

About word order

For clarity, let’s introduce the values ​​of the part of the compound predicate:
V1 - auxiliary verb (haben or sein)
V2 - Partizip II of the semantic verb

General cases:
1) if in a sentence, then Partizip II of the semantic verb is always at the end of the sentence:

Er hatte das Auto gekauft. - He bought a car. (formula: V1 + V2)

2) depending on the location of the secondary members, the subject can “drop in” behind the auxiliary verb:

Vorgestern hatte er das Auto gekauft. - The day before yesterday he bought a car. (formula: V1 + V2)

3) when the word order in subordinate clauses is changed, both verbs are placed at the end of the sentence, and then the semantic part V2 is used first, and then the auxiliary verb V1:

Nachdem sie seine Oma angerufen hatte, ging sie schlafen. (formula: V2 +V1)

RULE 3: when in a sentence, in addition to the auxiliary verb, there are semantic and modal verbs, then both are put in an indefinite form.

Compare:

Wir hatten es nicht gewollt. - We didn't want this.
Wir hatten es nicht tun wollen. - We didn't want to do this

(according to Rule 3 links tun + wollen put in an indefinite form).

When do we use the verb SEIN?

The verb sein is combined with:

a) verbs, meaning movement or displacement(fahren - to go, zurückkehren - to return, spazierengehen - to go for a walk, kommen - to come, laufen - to run, fallen - to fall);

B) verbs meaning state change(aufstehen - get up, aufwachen - wake up, durchfallen - fail, vergehen - pass, sterben - die);

B) verbs werden, bleiben, begegnen, gelingen, geschehen, passieren and the verb itself sein.

Note: depending on the context, verbs of motion such as fahren, fliegen can be used with both haben and sein.

For example:

Ich war mit altem Bus langsam gefahren. - I was driving slowly on an old bus.
Ich hatte den Bus gefahren. - I was driving the bus.

Ich war mit dem Hubschrauber geflogen. - I was flying in a helicopter.
Ich hatte den Hubschrauber geflogen. - I flew a helicopter.

As can be seen from the examples, in the second case, it is not so much the movement that is important, but the fact of driving the vehicle itself.

Long past or pre-past?

Let us now find out how to distinguish long-past tense from pre-past tense.

Pluperfect

Let's read the sentence:
Ich hatte im Jahr 1992 mein Haus gebaut. - I built my house in 1992
(It is implied that the action occurred a long time ago relative to the realities of the present) 1
The year 992 is already quite deep in the past, which is what the use of Plusquamperfekt signals to us here.

MEMORY: If we want to mention long-past events, and it is important for us to emphasize their prescription, then we can safely use Plusquamperfekt.

Pre-past tense

Let's consider two proposals:
Sie sind in den Bus eingestiegen. - You got on the bus
Sie sind mit ihm nach der Bibliothek gefahren. - You drove it to the library

Both sentences use perfect, but what if one event happened before the other?
That is, how to describe what first they get on the bus , and then get there on it to the library? This is where Plusquamperfekt comes to the rescue.

Since the first event happened before the other, it is advisable to apply the antecedent tense to it:

Sie waren in den Bus eingestiegen. Sie sind Damit zur Bibliothek gefahren. -You got on the bus. You rode it to the library. (implies that we came in first and then left)

MEMORY: Plusquamperfekt we highlight an action in the past that occurred before another action.

As practice shows, in most cases in speech such sentences are combined into a complex construction using the conjunction

nachdem- after

And then the main clause takes the form of the past tense (Präteritum).

This is a unique case of tense agreement, when one tense - Plusquamperfekt - is compound, containing both an auxiliary verb and a semantic verb, and the other is simple (Präteritum), containing only one semantic verb.

WARNING: The conjunction nachdem changes the word order .

Here are some examples:

Nachdem meine Schwester aufgewacht war, verstand sie eine einfache Sache: der Film war schon zu Ende - After my sister woke up, she realized one thing simple thing: The film has already ended.

Nachdem ich die Räder gepumpt hatte, fuhr mein Fahrrad besser los. - After I pumped up the tires, my bike rode better.

Nachdem sie diese schwere Aufgabe gelöst hatte, fühlte sie sich sehr entkräftet. - After she solved this difficult problem, she felt exhausted.

In German there is a rare form of double antecedent tense, or Doppeltes Plusquamperfekt or Ultra-Plusquamperfekt

Construction formula Doppeltes Plusquamperfect is this:

SUBJECT + HABEN/SEIN IM PRÄTERITUM + PARTIZIP II SENSIBLE VERB + GEHABT/GEWESEN.

This construction contradicts the norms of the literary German language. If Plusquamperfekt I ambiguously expresses the action, then we agreed in such cases to use Doppeltes Plusquamperfect.

Als die Baustoffe geliefert wurden, hatten die Arbeiter den neuen Stock gebaut gehabt. - When Construction Materials were delivered, workers built a new floor
Als die Baustoffe geliefert wurden, hatten die Arbeiter den neuen Stock bereits gebaut. - When the construction materials were delivered, the workers had already built a new floor

This tense is often used in dialects and colloquial speech. By the way, Matrin Luther loved him. But if you are learning literary German, then the usual Plusquamperfekt is more than enough. Do you want to learn German? Enroll in Deutsch School Online! To study, you need a computer, smartphone or tablet with Internet access, and you can study online from anywhere in the world at a time convenient for you.

Rustam Reichenau, Deutsch Online