Lesson 2 – Pluperfect tense

Alongside the perfect and imperfect tenses, a further past tense exists in Latin. This is called the pluperfect tense. The pluperfect tense (or past perfect in English) is used to describe finished actions that have been completed at a definite point in time in the past.

It is easiest to understand it as a past ‘past’ action.

For example:

‘I had given the messuage to Lucy, when I realised my mistake.’

The messuage had been given to Lucy before the speaker realised his mistake.

In Latin this tense looks like this:

Pluperfect tense
Ego Lucie messuagium dederam – I had given a messuage to Lucy

The endings for the pluperfect are similar to those of the present tense:

The difference is that they are preceded by ‘era-’ and, in the first person singular, the characteristic ‘-o’ of the present changes to ‘-m’ in the pluperfect.

To form the pluperfect tense, remove the ‘-i’ from the third principal part of the verb and add the relevant ending.

Pluperfect of confirmo, confirmare, confirmavi, confirmatum (1) to confirm

Irregular verbs

Handy hint

Two irregular verbs you will frequently come across are ‘esse’, ‘to be’, and ‘ire’, ‘to go’. It is well worth learning their pluperfect forms.

The pluperfect tense of sum, esse, fui – ‘to be’ is formed as follows:

The pluperfect tense of eo, ire, ivi, itum (4) ‘to go’ is formed as follows:

Checklist

Are you confident with

• the meaning of a pluperfect tense?
• the form of a pluperfect tense?
• the meaning of the irregular verbs ‘esse’ and ‘ire’ in the pluperfect tense?
• the form of the irregular verbs ‘esse’ and ‘ire’ in the pluperfect tense?

What next?

• Go to Lesson 15