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PrepMyFrench
El passé antérieur es poco frecuente hoy en día; se encuentra principalmente en textos literarios. Es el equivalente literario del plus-que-parfait y se utiliza en relación con el passé simple para indicar que una acción ocurrió antes que otra acción en el pasado.
The passé antérieur is a literary compound tense formed with the passé simple of avoir/être + the past participle. It expresses an action completed immediately before another past action in formal written French, typically used after quand, lorsque, dès que, and après que.
Example
Formula
| Person | avoir (passé simple) | être (passé simple) |
|---|---|---|
| je | eus ...lu | fus ...parti(e) |
| tu | eus ...lu | fus ...parti(e) |
| il/elle | eut ...lu | fut ...parti(e) |
| nous | eûmes ...lu | fûmes ...parti(e) |
| vous | eûtes ...lu | fûtes ...parti(e) |
| ils/elles | eurent ...lu | furent ...parti(e) |
The passé antérieur is extremely rare in spoken French. It appears almost exclusively in formal literature, historical writing, and very formal speeches.
Practice recognizing the passé antérieur in French literature with 15 interactive questions. Instant scoring with explanations from PrepMyFrench.
Type any French verb into PrepMyFrench's free conjugator and see all compound tenses including passé antérieur, plus-que-parfait, and futur antérieur.