noun / adjective

pluperfect

ploo-PUR-fikt/ˌpluːˈpɜːrfɪkt/

A verb tense expressing an action completed before another past time.

The pluperfect places a completed action before another past event.

An open language-study notebook displays one authentic sentence whose two verb phrases visibly demonstrate an action completed before another past action: “Rain had stopped before dawn broke.” The pluperfect phrase receives restrained pencil emphasis, with no definition or grammatical label.

Etymology

pluLatinmore

+perLatincompletely

+fectLatinmake, do

“More” joins the idea of “completely done” to mean “more than perfect.” Here perfect means completed, so the pluperfect places an action's completion before another past action.

In context

Armfield Academic Press8:21

the future perfect tense is similar to the pluperfect because there are two points in time being referred to that are relative to one another

Lesson 32: The pluperfect and future perfect indicative active.

More examples

In “She had left before I arrived,” “had left” is pluperfect.
Use the pluperfect to explain what had already happened.
The pluperfect form of “go” is “had gone.”

Forms

pluperfect · pluperfects

Similar words

past perfect: The usual modern English name for the same tense.