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Latin from scratch course › #8: Pluperfect › #8.17: Pluperfect indicative

Latin from scratch #8.17: The active indicative pluperfect past tense

In the seventeenth class of the Latin from Scratch course, we’ll study a new past tense: the pluperfect past indicative in the active voice (from now on, just pluperfect). It is a quite simple tense.

Contents

  • Morphology of the Latin pluperfect indicative
    • Pluperfect of the verb sum
  • Translation of the pluperfect tense into English

I explain everything in the following video (⏳ 05m 57s ⌛):

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Morphology of the Latin pluperfect indicative

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Contrary to English, Spanish, etc., in Latin the pluperfect is made up of only one word. All the conjugations work in the same way:

  1. perfect stem
  2. pluperfect indicative morpheme ĕrā
  3. active endings

The result is the following table:

1st conjugation2nd conjugation3rd conjugationmixed conjugation4th conjugation
amaveram
amaveras
amaverat
amaveramus
amaveratis
amaverant
monueram
monueras
monuerat
monueramus
monueratis
monuerant
duxeram
duxeras
duxerat
duxeramus
duxeratis
duxerant
ceperam
ceperas
ceperat
ceperamus
ceperatis
ceperant
audiveram
audiveras
audiverat
audiveramus
audiveratis
audiverant

Pluperfect of the verb sum

Even the verb sum is completely regular. You just need to remember that its perfect stem is fu‑.

fueram
fueras
fuerat
fueramus
fueratis
fuerant

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Translation of the pluperfect tense into English

This tense corresponds to the English past perfect: amaveram → I had loved. Of course, it would be great if we actually understand what the Latin pluperfect and the English past perfect actually mean and how they differ from other past tenses such as imperfect, perfect, etc.

The pluperfect (Latin plusquamperfectum: more than perfect) means that the action was completed before another action in the past: it expresses anteriority with respect to the past.

This means that most of the times the pluperfect will appear very close to another past tense.

We’ll understand all of this even better with our next practice!

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Next: The active indicative pluperfect past tense →

Paco Álvarez

About Paco Álvarez

I’m Paco Álvarez, a Spanish classical philologist. For years I’ve been teaching Latin and Greek online to Spanish students. When I saw there was nothing like my AcademiaLatin.com for English-speaking Latin lovers, I decided to create it myself, and that’s how LatinFromScratch.com was born.

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Course content

  1. Quick start
  2. Introduction
  3. Cases and their functions
  4. The five declensions
  5. First declension
  6. Verbal conjugation
  7. Present tense
  8. Second declension
  9. 2-1-2 adjectives
  10. Imperfect past tense
  11. Future tense
  12. Third declension nouns
  13. Third declension adjectives
  14. Perfect past tense
  15. Adverbials of place
  16. Fourth declension
  17. Fifth declension
  18. Pluperfect tense
  19. Possessives
  20. Personal pronouns
  21. Apposition
  22. Predicative complement
  23. Present subjunctive
  24. Imperfect subjunctive
  25. Perfect subjunctive
  26. Perfect future indicative
  27. Pluperfect subjunctive
  28. Syntax of cum
  29. Syntax of ut & ne
  30. Comparison of adjectives
  31. Superlative adjectives
  32. Adverbs from adjectives
  33. Demonstratives
  34. Relative clauses
  35. Passive voice
  36. Deponent verbs
  37. Relative time
  38. Participles: morphology
  39. Participles: syntax
  40. Infinitives
  41. Compounds of sum
  42. Irregular verbs
  43. Imperative

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