Passé Composé or Plus-que-parfait
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Brian E.Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor
Passé Composé or Plus-que-parfait
“I snuck into the woods behind our house.”
Is translated as:
“je m'étais faufilé dans la forêt derrière la maison”.
But shouldn’t this be Passé Composé (j’ai faufilé) instead of Plus-que-parfait.
Asked 3 years ago
Hi Brian,
1. The hint is telling you to use the 'plus- que -parfait' to highlight the difference between what we say in English and French, describing what she had done prior to leaving the flowers
2. The passé composé of se faufiler would be -
' je me suis faufilé/e'
Bonne Continuation!
Jim J. Kwiziq Q&A super contributor
Hi Brian,
As I understand it, what is being described here is a background scenario leading to the flowers being placed.
Normally I would expect such a "build-up background picture" would be in an imparfait tense and this is why I think that plus-que-parfait is appropriate. This is not a completed action.
Hope this helps.
Jim
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