AtelierLe journal · French, understood
English

Language

The course

Updated

Cheat sheet

Passé antérieur: recognise eut fini and fut parti

Edited by Chris Lee · Updated · About the library

Recognise the passé antérieur with a five-rule sheet, full auxiliary forms and five questions on literary sequence, agreement and accents.

In short

The passé antérieur is a literary compound tense: passé simple of avoir or être + past participle. In Quand elle eut fini, elle sortit, finishing is complete before she goes out.

Yellow the idea to rememberBlue French to learn

A caretaker in a long coat walks away from a large closed wooden door in a French courtyard, keys in hand.
The closed door gives eut fermé a setting. Illustration: Atelier

Le passé antérieur · reconnaître et comprendre

1 · Find two verb parts

Eut is the auxiliary; fini is the participle. Read them together.

Dès qu’il eut fini, il sortit.As soon as he had finished, he went out.

2 · Choose the familiar auxiliary

Finir uses avoir; partir uses être. The literary tense keeps that choice.

Quand elles furent parties, le silence revint.When they had left, silence returned.

3 · Read completion before the next event

Quand, lorsque, dès que and après que often introduce the earlier event. À peine… que gives “hardly… when”.

À peine eut-elle parlé que tous se turent.Hardly had she spoken when everyone fell silent.

4 · Keep the agreement

With partir, match the participle to the subject. With avoir and a following object, keep the base participle.

Elles furent parties.They had left.

Elles eurent terminé leur travail.They had finished their work.

5 · Watch the third-person accent

Eut fini is indicative passé antérieur; eût fini is a literary pluperfect subjunctive form. The accent in eûmes belongs to a different person.

Quand nous eûmes terminé, nous sortîmes.When we had finished, we went out.

Study first: the auxiliary series

Passé simple auxiliaries
Subjectavoirêtre
jeeusfus
tueusfus
il / elle / oneutfut
nouseûmesfûmes
vouseûtesfûtes
ils / elleseurentfurent

Compare elle avait fini (plus-que-parfait) with elle eut fini (passé antérieur). Both look back from a past point; the auxiliary gives the tense. In a literary sequence, the passé antérieur often places completion directly before the next narrative event. It can also stand independently: Il eut vite compris.

One more check: active or passive?

La porte fut fermée par le gardien.

The door was closed by the caretaker.

Passé simple passive of fermer.

Quand le gardien eut fermé la porte, il partit.

When the caretaker had closed the door, he left.

Active passé antérieur of fermer: eut fermé.

Question 1No account needed
Complete with the passé simple auxiliary.Dès qu’elle ___ fini, elle sortit.

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

eut. Eut fini combines passé simple avoir with the participle fini.

Question 2No account needed
Choose the participle for two sisters.Quand les deux sœurs furent ___, le silence revint.

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

parties. The subject is feminine plural, so parties takes -es with être.

Question 3No account needed
Complete the passé antérieur with nous.Quand nous ___ terminé, nous sortîmes.

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

eûmes. The first-person plural passé simple of avoir is eûmes, with a circumflex.

Question 4No account needed
In this sentence, which action is complete first?Quand elle eut fini, elle sortit.

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

Finishing. The passé antérieur eut fini places finishing before sortit.

Question 5No account needed
Which sentence contains a passé simple passive?

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

La porte fut fermée par le gardien.. Fut fermée par le gardien is passive; the active compound form of fermer uses avoir.

Keep going