Le past perfect (plus-que-parfait)

Document 1. Extract from a travel blog.
« Our flight to Dublin left at six in the morning, so we had set the alarm for three. When it rang, my brother had already been awake for an hour: he had packed his bag the night before, but he had forgotten his passport at Grandma's house, forty minutes away! Dad drove there in the dark while Mum and I waited at the airport. By the time they came back, the check-in had closed. Luckily, a member of staff had seen us running and she reopened the desk. On the plane, my brother fell asleep before we had even taken off. He hadn't slept at all: he had spent the night watching videos about Ireland. When we landed, it was raining, of course. But we didn't care: we had finally arrived. »

1. a)Why had the family set the alarm for three o'clock?
2. b)What had the brother done the night before, and what had he forgotten?
3. c)What had happened by the time Dad and the brother came back, and how was the problem solved?
4. d)Explain in French why the author writes « he had spent the night watching videos » and not « he spent ».

Document 2. Timeline of a school trip, written by the teacher after the trip.

1. a)How long did the journey to the castle take? At what time did the trip end?
2. b)Find in the table two events that happened BEFORE the moment they were noticed (past perfect), and say when they were noticed.
3. c)Rewrite the 8:15 line as direct speech from Leo (« Oh no, I … »), then explain in French why the table uses the past perfect.
4. d)Write two sentences of your own about the trip: one with « when » + preterite + past perfect, and one with « by the time ».

1. a)Conjugue : « When the referee (blow) ___ the whistle, the fans (already / invade) ___ the pitch. » / « Sam (not / eat) ___ for ten hours, so he (order) ___ two pizzas. »
2. b)Mets à la forme négative, puis interrogative : « The plane had taken off. »
3. c)Réécris au discours indirect avec « She said that… » : « I have never been to Wales. »
4. d)Corrige les trois erreurs : « After the guests has left, we had cleaned the house because they had drank everything in the fridge. »

1. a)Donne le participe passé de : fly, choose, freeze, ride, begin, steal, drive, fall.
2. b)Place l'adverbe au bon endroit et réécris la phrase : a) « We had eaten. » (just) — b) « They hadn't paid. » (yet) — c) « She had seen snow. » (never) — d) « Had you visited London? » (ever)
3. c)Explique en anglais la différence entre « I have finished » et « I had finished » (une phrase chacune, avec un exemple de contexte).
4. d)Traduis : « Le temps que nous arrivions, le magasin avait déjà fermé, alors nous sommes rentrés. »

Write a short story (80 words minimum) beginning with: « When I opened my locker on Monday morning, I understood that something strange had happened during the weekend. » Follow the four steps and use the past perfect at least four times.

1. a)Describe what you found in the locker and what someone had done (two past perfects).
2. b)Explain what you had done on Friday before leaving school (one sentence with « before » or « after »).
3. c)Tell how you discovered the truth, with a sentence beginning with « By the time… ».
4. d)Conclude with what you decided to do, and one sentence in the negative past perfect (« I had never… » or « I hadn't… »).