French/Grammar/Tenses/Past anterior

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[edit] Usage of the Past Anterior

The past anterior is used for actions completely terminated before the main past action. It translates as to have done something (before doing something else). Ex: I had gone to the store before I picked him up.

The past anterior is a compound tense- it consists of two verbs, the auxiliary verb and the past participle one seeks to use in this tense.
The auxiliary verb is conjugated as if it were being used in the passé simple.
The past participle is added immediately after the auxiliary verb.
A negative structure such as ne ... pas is always placed around the auxiliary verb, not the past participle.

Concepts :	Present participle · Past participle · Gérondif · Infinitive · Past infinitive · Auxiliary verb · Perfect tenses
Indicative mood :	Simple tenses (Present · Imperfect · Past historic · Future) · Perfect tenses (Present perfect · Pluperfect · Past anterior · Future anterior) · Other tenses (Recent past · Near future)
Subjunctive mood :	Present · Imperfect · Past · Pluperfect
Imperative mood :	Present · Past
Conditional mood :	Present · Past · Second form of the past

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