B1 · Tenses
The Plusquamperfekt
the past before the past
hatte or war plus a participle — for what had already happened when something else did.
The Plusquamperfekt says that one past event came before another. It is hatte or war plus a participle: Als ich ankam, war der Zug schon abgefahren. The auxiliary is exactly the one the Perfekt would use, only in the simple past.
It almost never stands alone. Its job is to order two events, so it appears beside a Präteritum or a Perfekt, usually with als, nachdem or bevor. A sentence in the Plusquamperfekt with no second event is grammatical and reads as unfinished.
Nachdem is the conjunction it was made for, and the pairing is fixed: nachdem plus Plusquamperfekt in the subordinate clause, Präteritum in the main one. English is looser and often uses two simple pasts, so the German sequence has to be produced deliberately.
Die Form
| with haben | Ich hatte es vergessen. |
| with sein | Er war schon gegangen. |
| after nachdem | Nachdem wir gegessen hatten, gingen wir. |
| after als | Als ich kam, hatte sie schon angerufen. |
| negated | Ich hatte nichts davon gewusst. |
Die Regeln im Einzelnen
The Plusquamperfekt is hatte or war plus the participle.
Wir hatten den Termin vergessen.We had forgotten the appointment.
The auxiliary is the same one the Perfekt uses, in the simple past.
Sie war schon eingeschlafen.She had already fallen asleep.
After nachdem the subordinate clause takes the Plusquamperfekt and the main clause the Präteritum.
Nachdem er gegangen war, wurde es still.After he had left it went quiet.
It orders two events and rarely stands alone.
Als wir ankamen, hatte das Konzert schon begonnen.When we arrived the concert had already started.
Genauer hingesehen
Why German needs the sequence and English does not
English can often leave the order to the conjunction: "after" already says which event came first, so the tense need not repeat it. German treats the tense as carrying the order and the conjunction as carrying the relation, and expects both to agree.
The practical consequence is that nachdem is harder to use than it looks and easy to avoid: zuerst ... dann or two ordinary past tenses with dann say the same thing with no sequence to get right. Knowing the escape route is worth as much as knowing the rule.
Ausnahmen und Sonderfälle (2)
-
the clause is spoken rather than written
the main clause often takes a Perfekt instead of a Präteritum.
Nachdem wir gegessen hatten, sind wir gegangen.After we had eaten we left.
The Präteritum is the written past; in speech the Perfekt takes over everywhere except sein, haben and the modals.
-
the earlier event is obvious from the context
a plain Perfekt is enough and the Plusquamperfekt sounds heavy.
Ich habe den Schlüssel vergessen und musste zurück.I forgot the key and had to go back.
The form exists to mark an order that would otherwise be unclear; where it is clear, marking it is noise.
Woran man es erkennt
- hatte
- war
- nachdem
- als
- bevor
- schon
- bereits
Beispielsätze
Der Laden hatte schon zu, als wir kamen.The shop had already closed when we arrived.
Nachdem sie unterschrieben hatte, ging alles schnell.After she had signed, everything went quickly.
Ich hatte den Brief nie bekommen.I had never received the letter.
Er war zu dem Zeitpunkt längst umgezogen.By that time he had long since moved away.
Wir hatten uns vorher nie gesehen.We had never met before.
Noch 8 Beispielsätze
Sie hatte den Zug verpasst und nahm den nächsten.She had missed the train and took the next one.
Als der Arzt kam, war das Fieber schon gesunken.By the time the doctor came the fever had gone down.
Wir hatten uns auf einen Preis geeinigt.We had agreed on a price.
Nachdem der Vertrag unterschrieben war, begann die Arbeit.After the contract had been signed the work began.
Er hatte nie in einer Stadt gelebt.He had never lived in a city.
Bevor sie kam, hatten wir schon alles vorbereitet.Before she came we had already prepared everything.
Das Paket war zwei Tage vorher angekommen.The parcel had arrived two days earlier.
Ich hatte mich schlicht geirrt.I had simply been mistaken.
Besonderheiten (2)
-
It is the only German tense with an obvious job
German tenses overlap heavily — the present does the future, the Perfekt does the whole spoken past — and the Plusquamperfekt is the exception: it does one thing and nothing else does it. That makes it easier to learn than the others and easier to spot when reading.
Als ich ankam, war er schon weg.When I arrived he had already gone.
-
schon and bereits mark it in speech
Because the auxiliary alone is easy to miss, spoken German usually adds <z>schon</z>, <z>bereits</z> or <z>längst</z>. They are not required and they are almost always there — a useful thing to imitate, because they make the sequence audible.
Der Zug war längst abgefahren.The train had long since left.
Die typisch deutsche Falle
Aufgepasst
English happily says "after we ate we left" with two simple pasts, and German does not: nachdem demands that the earlier event stand one tense further back. The wrong version is heard, understood and marked as foreign. In speech the second half is often a Perfekt rather than a Präteritum, which is fine — what is not optional is the Plusquamperfekt in the nachdem clause.
nachdem: the earlier event goes one tense further back.
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