|
The pluperfect tense (from Latin: plus quam perfectum more than perfect) is a perfective tense that exists in most Indo-European languages, used to refer to an event that has completed before another past action. Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ...
Grammatical tense is a way languages express the time at which an event described by a sentence occurs. ...
The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred languages and dialects (443 according to the SIL estimate), including most of the major languages of Europe, as well as many in Southwest Asia, Central Asia and Southern Asia. ...
In the sentence "The blind man, who knew that he had risen, motioned him to sit down again" (from Charles Dickens, Barnaby Rudge), "he had risen" is an example of the pluperfect tense. It refers to an event (someone rises from his seat), which takes place before another event (the blind man notices the fact that the other has risen). Since that second event (the blind man's taking notice) is itself a past event and the past tense is used to refer to it ("the blind man knew"), the pluperfect is needed to make it clear that the first event (someone rises) has taken place even earlier in the past. Charles Dickens was a prolific writer who was almost always working on a new installment for a story and rarely missed a deadline. ...
Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of Eighty is a historical novel by the author Charles Dickens. ...
The past tense is a verb tense expressing action, activity, state or being in the past. ...
In the English language, the pluperfect tense is often called the past perfect. It is formed by combining the past tense of the auxiliary verb have with the past participle. Other languages like Latin have special verb forms for the pluperfect tense and do not need to use auxiliary verbs. Thus the Latin equivalent of he had seen is viderat. However, most modern European languages combine auxiliary verbs and past participles: The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...
In linguistics, an auxiliary or helping verb is a verb whose function it is to give further semantic information about the main or full verb which follows it. ...
In linguistics, a participle is an adjective derived from a verb. ...
In German, the pluperfect (Plusquamperfekt) is used in much the same manner, normally in a nachdem sentence. The Plusquamperfekt is formed with the Partizip Perfekt (Partizip II) of the full lexical verb, plus the auxiliary verb haben or sein in its preterite form, depending on the full lexical verb in question. For example: Nachdem ich aufgestanden war, ging ich ins Badezimmer. (After I had gotten up, I went into the bathroom.) This article is about the grammatical term. ...
In French, the pluperfect (plus que parfait) is formed from the imperfect tense of the appropriate auxiliary verb (être or avoir) plus the past participle. For example, Jean avait déjà éteint l'incendie quand les pompiers sont arrivés. (John had already put the fire out when the fire brigade arrived.) The imperfect tense, in the classical grammar of several Indo-European languages, denotes a past tense with an imperfective aspect. ...
In Spanish, the pluperfect (pluscuamperfecto) is (similarly) formed from the imperfect tense of the auxiliary verb haber plus the past participle. For example, Había comido cuando mi madre vino. (I had eaten when my mother came.) The imperfect tense, in the classical grammar of several Indo-European languages, denotes a past tense with an imperfective aspect. ...
In Portuguese, the pluperfect (mais-que-perfeito) has a particular form, needing one single verb to express this tense. For example, Quando cheguei soube que meu amigo morrera. (When I came I knew that my friend had died.) In spoken Portuguese, however, the pluperfect is formed using the auxiliary verb ter plus the past particple. For example, Quando cheguei soube que meu amigo tinha morrido.
In Romanian, the pluperfect (mai mult ca perfectul) is expressed without any auxiliary words, using a particular form of the verb. For example, in Când l-am întrebat, el văzuse deja filmul. (When I asked him, he had already seen the movie.) the verb văzuse is in the pluperfect form of a vedea (to see). Technically, this form is obtained from the singular third person form of the simple perfect tense by adding specific terminations for each person and number.
In Italian, the pluperfect (trapassato prossimo) is formed correspondingly to French by using the imperfect tense of the appropriate auxiliary verb (essere or avere) plus the past participle. For example, Ero affamato perché non avevo mangiato. (I was hungry because I had not eaten.) The imperfect tense, in the classical grammar of several Indo-European languages, denotes a past tense with an imperfective aspect. ...
See also
Look up Pluperfect tense in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...
Wiktionary logo Wiktionary is a Wikimedia Foundation project intended to be a free wiki dictionary (including thesaurus and lexicon) in almost every language. ...
It has been suggested that Future perfect tense be merged into this article or section. ...
To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ...
The past tense is a verb tense expressing action, activity, state or being in the past. ...
The present tense is the tense (form of a verb) that is often used to express: Action at the present time A state of being A habitual action An occurrence in the near future An action that occurred in the past and continues up to the present There are two...
This article is about the grammatical term. ...
External links - Grammar Tutorials - a column overview of the English tenses
|
Feeds |
Contact