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For example, Quando cheguei, soube que o meu amigo morrera, 'When I came, I found out that my friend had died'. In Portuguese, however, its use has become mostly literary, and particularly in spoken communication, the pluperfect is usually formed using the auxiliary verb ter , in the imperfect form (tinha tinhas tinha tínhamos tínheis tinham ...
Further, where older or more literary French would have used the perfect form of the simple past tense (le passé antérieur) for the past-of-the-past, modern non-literary French uses the pluperfect (le plus-que-parfait; the perfect of the imperfect), or sometimes a new form called the surcomposé (literally, "over-compound"), which re-applies ...
Pluperfect (pluperfecto, mais-que-perfeito) e.g. Yo había comido or Yo hube comido and Eu comera or Eu tinha comido (I had eaten [before another event in the past]) A difference in the pluperfect occurs between Spanish and Portuguese; in the latter, a synthetic pluperfect exists which follows the imperfect conjugations, but -ra replaces the ...
In modern English, the auxiliary verb used to form the present perfect is always to have. A typical present perfect clause thus consists of the subject, the auxiliary have/has, and the past participle (third form) of main verb. Examples: I have done so much in my life. You have gone to school. He has already arrived in America.
Pluperfect (plus-que-parfait): literally "more than perfect", formed with an auxiliary verb in the imperfect; Simple past (passé simple) Conventionally used only in written language (especially in literature) or in extremely formal speech. Past perfect (passé antérieur): formed with an auxiliary verb in the simple past. It is somewhat rare.
J'ai peur que cela ne se reproduise. — "I am afraid that it might happen again." Il est arrivé avant que nous n ' ayons commencé. — "He arrived before we started." Ils sont plus nombreux que tu ne le crois. — "There are more of them than you think." Expletive ne is found in finite subordinate clauses (never before an infinitive).
A famous example for lexical ambiguity is the following sentence: "Wenn hinter Fliegen Fliegen fliegen, fliegen Fliegen Fliegen hinterher.", meaning "When flies fly behind flies, then flies fly in pursuit of flies." [40] [circular reference] It takes advantage of some German nouns and corresponding verbs being homonymous. While not noticeable ...
(More possible forms and examples are given under § English below.) The basic (present) perfect form, with the auxiliary in the present tense, may specifically carry the meaning of perfect aspect, as in English; however in some languages it is used more generally as a past tense (or preterite), as in French and German.