O more-than-perfect tense tense it is a tense used to indicate a past action that occurred before another, also in the past. It is often used in formal situations or in literary texts.
Sentence Examples:
- Diogo spoke Of your parents.
- Dora drink a very strong drink.
- spoke as if outside ordinary.
Furthermore, in its composite form, the more-than-perfect past tense can be used to speak of an action situated uncertainly in the past, for example: She already had spoken this before.
Formation of the more-than-perfect past tense
The more-than-perfect past tense features one simple shape and two compound (one in the indicative and the other in the subjunctive).
Besides it, in the indicative mode we have the perfect and imperfect past tense. In the subjunctive mode, only the imperfect past tense is conjugated.
1. Simple more-than-perfect past tense
In its simple formation, the more-than-perfect tense of the indicative is unusual in formal language, being more used in poetic texts.
Example:
(...) Seeing the sad shepherd who with mistakes
you outside thus denied to her pastor,
as if not had deserved;
starts serving another seven years,
saying:-More will serve, if not outside
for so long love so short life.
(Excerpt from the sonnet Seven years of pastor Jacob served, by Luís Vaz de Camões)
Conjugation of regular verbs in the past tense more-than-perfect
For regular verbs, which follow a fixed conjugation, the past tense more-than-perfect has the following endings:
| 1st conjugation (-ar) | 2nd conjugation (-er) | 3rd conjugation (-ir) |
|---|---|---|
| (I) radical + -ara | (I) radical + -era | (I) radical + -ira |
| (You) radical + -aras | (You) radical + -eras | (You) radical + -iras |
| (He) radical + -ara | (He) radical + -era | (He) radical + -ira |
| (We) radical + -ára | (We) radical + -were | (We) radical + -we would |
| (you) radical + -areis | (You) radical + -êis | (you) radical + -iris |
| (They) radical + -aram | (They) radical + -were | (They) radical + -iram |
Examples of simple more-than-perfect conjugation
For a better understanding, see below conjugated verbs in the past tense more-than-perfect in each of the three conjugations ending in -ar; -er; -go:
| 1st conjugation (-ar) – verb to find | 2nd conjugation (-er) – verb deserve | 3rd conjugation (-ir) – verb admit |
|---|---|---|
| I had found | I deserved | I will admit |
| you will find | you will deserve | you will admit |
| he had found | he deserved | he admitted |
| we found | we deserved | we admitted |
| you will find | you will deserve | you will admit |
| They found | they deserved | they admitted |
2. Past tense composite
The compound forms of the past tense more-than-perfect are widely used in colloquial (informal) language. It has one form in the indicative mode and the other in the subjunctive mode.
As in simple tense, it is used to indicate an action situated in the past and which will occur before another, also in the past.
Past tense more-than-perfect composed of the indicative
In addition to its simple formation, the past tense-more-than-perfect has a compound form in the indicative mode. It is formed by:
auxiliary verb "to have" conjugated in the imperfect indicative past tense + the participle of the main verb
Example: He had warned about the road accident.
| Past tense more-than-perfect composed of the Indicative |
|---|
| (I) had + participle of the main verb |
| (You) had + participle of the main verb |
| (He) had + participle of the main verb |
| (We) had + participle of the main verb |
| (You) had + participle of the main verb |
| (They) had + participle of the main verb |
Past tense more-than-perfect composed of the subjunctive
The compound more-than-perfect past tense is also conjugated in the subjunctive mode. In this case, it is used to refer to an event before another event in the past.
It is formed by:
auxiliary verb “to have” conjugated in the imperfect past tense of the subjunctive + the main verb in the participle
Example: Maybe had been a good student.
| More-than-perfect past tense composed of the subjunctive |
|---|
| (I) had + participle of the main verb |
| (You) had + participle of the main verb |
| (He) had + participle of the main verb |
| (We) had + participle of the main verb |
| (Ye) hadsseis + participle of the main verb |
| (They) had + participle of the main verb |
Note: In compound tenses the verb to have is also used, although “to have” is more common.
Read too:
- Verb tenses
- Past Perfect
- Past Imperfect