pluperfect
- adjective
- /ˈpluːpərfɛkt/
- Specialized
:
pluscuamperfecto
- The pluperfect significance of the "subject before the verb" was known in the 1800s, but a more comprehensive understanding of "verb second" word order use in biblical Hebrew has only been attained within the past forty years.
Examples
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In the sentence "She had finished her homework before dinner," the verb tense used is a pluperfect tense.
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The Hebrew words of Genesis 1:2 are also ordered in the sequence that Biblical Hebrew uses to indicate pluperfect action, i.e., expressed in English by verbs using the word "had."
Blog text (7) -
The grammatical spread of mourning and melancholia is complex—perfect and pluperfect, but future perfect, too.
Academic text (2007) -
To express an action completed before a past moment, such as "He had already left when I arrived," is an example of the pluperfect tense.
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English grammar often uses the pluperfect to show that an action occurred before another action in the past.
Compounds
- Specialized
1
8.9
A verb form showing one past action happened before another past action
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Pluperfect comes from Latin parts plus 'more' and perfectus 'completed'. So the adjective describes a verb tense that shows one past action was finished before another past action.