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The Plusquamperfekt (past perfect or pluperfect) describes an action that happened before another past action. It is the German equivalent of English "I had done" or "she had gone." If you want to express that one event in the past preceded another, the Plusquamperfekt is the tense you need.
The Plusquamperfekt is formed with:
Präteritum of haben or sein + past participle
It looks exactly like the Perfekt, but instead of using the present tense of haben/sein, you use the Präteritum (hatte/war).
| Tense | Auxiliary | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Perfekt | habe/bin (present) | Ich habe das Buch gelesen. |
| Plusquamperfekt | hatte/war (Präteritum) | Ich hatte das Buch gelesen. |
Use hatte + past participle when the Perfekt would use haben:
| Person | Conjugation |
|---|---|
| ich | hatte ... gemacht |
| du | hattest ... gemacht |
| er / sie / es | hatte ... gemacht |
| wir | hatten ... gemacht |
| ihr | hattet ... gemacht |
| sie / Sie | hatten ... gemacht |
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