📖LearnModule 6 · Lesson 3 of 30Independent User · CEFR B1, first halfUnit 1 · Raconter — telling the past
Too late! — the pluperfect in stories
Module 6 of the free French course (CEFR B1, first half), lesson 3 of 30: The être club keeps its helper in the pluperfect too: elle était partie. On this page: 7 words with their genders and respellings, the rule, a watch-out line, the conjugation table and the audio — the study notes behind the workbook's lesson 3.
The words
French
English
Say it
elle était déjà partie
she had already left
ehl ay-teh day-zhah pahr-TEE
le train était parti
the train had left
luh tra(n) ay-teh pahr-TEE
la gare
the station
lah GAHR
manquer
to miss
mah(n)-KAY
j'ai manqué le train
I missed the train
zhay mah(n)-kay luh TRA(n)
heureusement
luckily
uh-ruhz-MAH(n)
malheureusement
unfortunately
mah-luh-ruhz-MAH(n)
Respellings follow the course’s say-it key; the stressed syllable is in capitals. Print this lesson’s flashcards (PDF) — the words on the front, the English and respelling on the back.
Hear the words
Each word is read twice — say it back in the gap. Computer-generated voice; credits on the course page.
La règle · The rule
The être club keeps its helper in the pluperfect too: elle était partie — she had left. Same club, same agreement, one step further back in time.
Et aussi · And also
Je suis arrivé à la gare à huit heures... mais le train était parti! The pluperfect is the tense of TOO LATE — what had already happened when you got there.
Attention · Watch out
The être club keeps être in the plus-que-parfait too: elle était partie — and the participle still agrees: elle était partie, ils étaient partis.
voir, plus-que-parfait — the table
je avais vu · tu avais vu · il/elle avait vu · nous avions vu · vous aviez vu · ils/elles avaient vu
aller, plus-que-parfait — the table
il était allé · elle était allée · ils étaient allés · elles étaient allées
Do it now — on paper
Say all 7 words aloud twice from the respelling, then once from the French spelling alone — begin with elle était déjà partie.
Copy every word with its accents on paper; then cover the English column and write each meaning back from the French.
Write out voir, plus-que-parfait and aller, plus-que-parfait in full from memory, every person, and check each form against the table above.
This free course is the reading half. The writing half — write-in lessons, daily practice pages with built-in review, self-checks and a full answer key — is the companion workbook series, The French Ladder: one workbook per module, fifteen in all, released band by band with the Basic band (Modules 1–5) first.
Keep these words
Turn this lesson’s words into flashcards, then space your reviews — the two habits the research behind our study guides backs hardest.