Lesson video

It's Mr. Ferber here, and this is the first of a two-lesson unit on the third past tense.

Because two past tenses wasn't enough, no, no, no.

You had done the perfect, done the imperfect, and now we're onto the pluperfect, all right? And I bet you can't wait to find out what that tense is all about.

And I can't wait to teach you what it's about! The pluperfect, let's have a little look.

The pluperfect tense.

Our learning objectives are can I define and recognise the pluperfect tense? Can I remember all six person endings of the pluperfect tense? And can I translate verbs in all, not just the pluperfect, in all tenses, including irregular verbs.

Press pause at this stage, if you haven't come prepared in any way.

Make sure you have those things that are listed there.

Thank you very much if you did come prepared.

You're my favourite student.

Right.

Let's have a look at that grammar point.

The weekend I had, the weekend I had.

We haven't done this one for a couple of units, have we? This on the left is me, and this is my mother's house on Friday night.

What does ambulabat mean? Well, Mr. Ferber, this is the imperfect tense.

We've done it loads, all right? It's used for incomplete or repeated action in the past.

You're going to fall down the hole, aren't you, Mr. Farber, right? You didn't get to your mother's house.

So therefore, we can't say "He walks to," we have to say "He was walking." When you say "ba," we say "was" or "were." Ba, was or were.

So the teacher was walking to the house.

But you're going to fall down the hole, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, there you go down, ah, ah, ah, ah! But there's something new.

Look at this, Mr. Clever Clogs! All right, , don't know what that means, do you? Non advenit, right.

The teacher, who, now, let's say I were to arrive at my mother's house.

Which thing happened first, the falling down the hole, or the arriving at the house? It would be the falling down the hole happened, obviously, it happened before, didn't it, the arrival.

Both things happened in the past.

Now we could just translate this as, the teacher who fell down the hole didn't arrive.

But we need to get across the fact that the falling happened before the non-arrival, yeah? So what word in English can we add there? The teacher who, something, fallen down the hole didn't arrive.

The teacher who had fallen down the hole did not arrive.

Era there, so era, had, era, has.

So we're going to look at another example.

That was my Friday night.

Saturday I went to the zoo.

The teacher, ba, was or were, the teacher was watching or looking at the crocodile, sed, now.

Which happened first, the breaking of the cage or the attacking of me, the magister? It's obviously going to be the breaking of the cage, and it has to happen before the attacking.

So, what English word are we going to add here when we translate? We don't necessarily want to go for the crocodile who broke.

We're going to say, but the crocodile who? Lovely, thank you, who had broken the cage, attacked the teacher.

Era, had, era, had, and then one last example, on my Monday morning, and here's me, delightfully, happily walking to , to school, was walking to school, but , but not he left behind his books, but he era, he had left behind his books.

What just happened? So, it's as simple as this.

This is our third past tense in Latin now, and it's called the pluperfect.

The pluperfect, pluperfect.

Okay, now, this is used for action which has happened before another action in the past.

So it's like one in front of the perfect tense, and you're going to recognise it with a perfect stem plus era.

It's not just era on its own, all right? And that's going to mean had somethinged.

So salutaverat is she had greeted, dixerat would be she had or he had said, okay? Now let's have a look.

What does this mean? What does this look like in relation to the two past tenses we've done before the pluperfect, which are the imperfect, , and the perfect V-U-X-S, meaning ed.

You will remember that for the perfect tense, as well as a V-U-X-S telling you, potentially, or most of the time, that you've got an ed on the end.

It also has these different person endings, which aren't necessarily based on , your erunt, you've got isti, they're a bit odd, they're a bit different.

What we're going to do actually, before I show you the pluperfect endings, I'd like you to just pause the video here and just take a quick look to remind yourself.

Just 30 seconds, pausing here, to remind yourself of the endings of those two past tenses we've already done.

Ready to pause in three, two, and go.

Let's have a look at these pluperfect endings.

So look, pluperfect comes before that one, had somethinged, and you're going to recognise it with an eram on the end of the perfect stem.

And then do we see how, look, M on the end for I, which is like bam, that's a bit different, as opposed to O, all right? But after that,.

Actually, the person endings, , sorry, the person endings are regular as anything.

All we're doing is putting that era after V-U-X-S, and we're going to think had when we see that era, era had.

Now, there is one tricky thing which I'm going to flag now, which is that erunt looks a little bit like erant.

If you see era in any form at the end of a long verb, or at the end of something with the V-U-X-S, you're thinking they had somethinged, erant, they had somethinged.

Don't confuse it.

You already know what this means.

Erunt on the end, that's perfect tense, so that's just they somethinged, all right? Okay, let's see if that's gone in.

Tenebat, so I don't want you to translate the whole thing, Just tell me what tense it is.

Is it going to be was or were, ed, or had somethinged? When I say "ba," you say "was" or "were." Laboravisti.

V-U-X-S-E, ed, ed, ed, ed, ed.

Laboraveram, let's have a go.

That one's going to be era, had somethinged.

This would be I had worked, all right? I had worked.

Tenuit.

V-U-X-S-E, ed, okay? That's he held.

Tenuerat.

Good, answer in two, and era, had somethinged.

That would be he or she had held, all right? Salutaverant, does that mean they had greeted? Nodding heads, shaking heads? Nodding heads, it certainly does, and it does, nodding, because the era, era, had somethinged, salutaverunt, does that mean they had greeted, erunt? This one is shaking heads, erunt, that's not pluperfect, that is perfect tense, and it just means they greeted.

erunt, perfect tense, okay? Now, let's go back to our pluperfect.

The first tricky thing about the pluperfect is that erant looks a bit like erunt.

The second tricky thing is that you may have thought, and really well done if you did do that, when looking at that, well, hold on, Mr. Ferber, I've already done a verb, or the endings of things which looks quite like this, and that is, in fact, the verb eram, which means I was.

Now, what can be tricky here, is if students see eram on the end, they see salutaveram and they think, well, that's going to be eram, so I was.

Saluta is greeting, so it's going to be I was greeting.

Whereas I was greeting is obviously salutabam.

When I say "ba," you say "was" or "were." So don't confuse, with that on the end of a long verb, one really easy solution that I could use, we'll see, though, is eram on its own, or era on its own with nothing on the front of eram.

That's I was, and then if you see eram with a big verb on the front, with a verb stem, that's going to be a pluperfect.

That means I had something, all right? I wish, I wish I could use that rule.

But there's one exception and that is this, oh, no! Poteram, now, do we see how you've got eram, but you've got something on the front, so I can't use the something-on-the-front rule, where something on the front of it means had somethinged, because poteram is eram plus pot.

Eram is I was, pot is able, poteram, I was able.

Let's have another look at this.

So, pluperfect tense and eram.

Salutabam is regular imperfect tense.

When I say "ba," you say "was" or "were." I was greeting.

Then we go to the pluperfect, and you've got the perfect stem at V, you add an era, and that goes to one past, one back from the perfect, and era there means had.

I had greeted.

Now, then we look at our irregular imperfect, and we've got eram on its own.

It's an irregular imperfect and it means I was.

It's the past of the verb, the imperfect of the verb to be.

Note how era looks different from ba.

That ba means was or were.

Bam on its own doesn't mean I was, that's eram, all right? Then we add just one more thing, which is where you just add pot on the front of eram, and that's an irregular imperfect, as well, and it means I was able.

Do we see how students.

The mistakes that students make are, they get used to translating era meaning had, all right? Then they see eram and they think that means I had.

Whereas it doesn't, it means I was, all right? They get used to a rule of thinking what eram.

I know eram on its own means I was.

But eram with something on the front means I have somethinged, so salutaveram is I had greeted.

Well, poteram, therefore, means I had been able.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, poteram is just a form of eram with pot added and it means I was able.

The other form that they have is where either they think that eram means I had, or they get so used to translating era meaning I was, they see salutveram and they think that means I was greeting.

Whereas we know that I was greeting is salutabam.

Let's just practise this a bit together.

Salutabam, let's see if I can come in here.

So I'll do this one, salutabam and salutaveram.

You start on the left and you match what tense you are and what it means from left to right.

Salutabam, when I say "ba," you say "was" or "were." That's the imperfect tense.

Repeated or unfinished action in the past, okay? Salutaveram, pluperfect, and you're going to think, I had greeted, okay? Your turn.

Next up, off you go.

What's the difference between ? Okay, answer in three, two, and there we go.

Eram, irregular imperfect, I was.

Next one.

What's the difference between eram and poteram? Be careful.

Okay, answer in three, two, one.

So translation should be fine.

Eram is I was, poteram is I was able.

But hopefully none of you thought that either of these verbs were pluperfect.

They're both irregular imperfect.

Really well done if you got that.

Let's have a look.

Now, festinaveram.

Does that mean I was hurrying, festinaveram? Nodding heads, shaking heads.

You're shaking heads, this is pluperfect tense, eram on the end of the perfect stem, one back from the perfect, I had somethinged.

Eram, does that mean I had? Shaking heads, what's eram mean? It's I was.

I had is ! It doesn't look anything like eram! Salutaveram, does that mean I had greeted? In two, and nodding heads, of course it does! Yeah, pluperfect, perfect stem, eram on the front, go one back in the past, I had greeted.

Does poteram mean I had been able? Great, nodding or shaking? It's going to be shaking heads, good! Okay, poteram, don't fall in the trap! This is just era meaning I was, with a pot on the front, and it means I was able.

Lovely, one more time then, what's the difference between salutaveram and poteram? Off we go.

Answer's in three, two, and good, that one's pluperfect, I had greeted.

This is irregular imperfect, I was able.

Okay, practise time! So, let's have a little look, switch that pen.

And I'm also going to need my different colours, yeah, some other colours.

So we did loads of work on this when we did the imperfect and perfect tense, and it's exactly the same method, we start here, I'm going to do the first one, and I don't want any help.

Do we start with clama when we're doing clamaveramus? No, we start at the end.

You want to go person, tense, stem, all right? Blue, pink, green.

Who, when, what, all right? So here, I start with mus, and I think mus, so it's going to be we.

So mus there, we.

Done, then, if now, I've said this before, but if you do have different-colored pens, that's amazing.

You don't need to use them if you don't have them.

Please do if you have just three different colours, but you don't need to.

I'm just doing it so I can show you the difference between each different bit.

Mus is done.

I'm going to cross it out in pink.

It's too late now.

Now we get to vera.

Now, V-U-X-S-E is ed, vera is way back.

It is perfect stem plus era, so it's pluperfect, and we want had, and I can jump forward and put ed there.

Done, done, then I do my stem, which is going to be in green, and we've got clama, and I think clama has to do with shouting.

So we've got, we had.

Done, done, okay, then I check, well, does it make sense? We had shouted.

Full stop in the end, 'cause it's a full verb, it's a complete sentence, and that does make sense.

I don't need to make any changes, so that's done.

It's as simple as that, yeah? You'll be fine.

So we'll look at another one.

Scripseras, scripseras.

Now this time, it's not going to be me doing it on my end.

You're going to come and join in with me, aren't you, yeah? So first things first, nodding heads, shaking heads, do I start with scrip? Shaking heads.

Do I start with s? Nodding heads, very nice.

Now, that's I, that's we, that's you plural, that's he.

Show me on fingers and thumbs, who is doing the s in scripseras? You can have as long as it takes me to get to the blue here.

Let's have a look, good, so it's going to be.

Now, you singular or you plural? It's going to be you singular, thank you.

You singular, done, done! Then I check my tense.

Can you, after now, what's the key word that we're going to need? You can have as much time as it takes me to, oop, now I've done it.

Is it going to be was or were, ed or had? Was or were, ed, had, scripsera, three, two, one.

Very nice, it's going to be had.

And then we jump over here and we put that ed there.

Done, done, now we get to the stem, and can you mime for me, what's the action of scrip? What's that to do with? Mime it for me.

It's going to be or from, oh, sorry, maybe like that, on the left to right view.

And so we're going to do had write.

This is where it step four is actually very important, 'cause we get to you had writed, or writed, and we realise we actually have to change that.

And it's going to be what? Can you make that verb make sense for me, tell me? It's going to be, yep, you singular, had, thank you, written, full stop, done, do we see? It's as simple as that.

Laboraveras means what? Three, two, going to be this last one, era, had.

You had worked, I'm going to get rid of me.

Manseratis means what? A bit quicker? Era, had, you plural, had stayed.

Tenuerunt, don't fall in the trap, means what? Good, now, there's no era, so this is in fact perfect tense, ed, they held.

Fugerat means what? Good, he, there's going to be era, had.

He had fled.

Now don't fall in the trap.

Era means what? Good, that's he was, irregular imperfect.

Portabant? This one's , when I say "ba," you say "was" or "were," poterant.

Good, well done, this is your irregular imperfect of , poteram, I was able, so poterant, they were able.

Does eram mean I had? Nodding heads, shaking heads? Shaking heads, eram means I was.

Does poteram mean I have been able? Nodding heads, shaking heads? Shaking heads, it means I was able.

We're going to do that over and over again till we get it.

Okay? And then the last form.

What is the difference between festinaverunt and festinaverant, era? In three, two, one, point at the one that's pluperfect? Point to that one, let's find out.

Festinaverant, this one is pluperfect.

They had hurried, as opposed to this one, E is , that's perfect tense.

They hurried.

Vendiderant versus vendiderunt, hmm! Answer's in three, two, and vendiderant is your pluperfect, they had sold, and vendiderunt is your perfect, meaning they sold.

It's time for you to do one on your own.

Spectaverant, pressing pause, off you go.

Switching to a different colour of pen.

What answers should be, let's have a look, they had watched or they had looked at.

How did we do? Course you were fine.

Absolutely fine, aren't you? Okay, so if you've got that one right, as you did, didn't you, you're going to be absolutely fine.

Here are 10 more examples just like that.

Pressing pause here, off you go.

Okay, now switching to a different-colored pen, and we'll see how we did.

So as usual, for your use, please, you must tell me, when it's just individual verbs, if it's you plural.

If you just wrote "you," you still get the tick, but you must add in, in that different-colored pen, whether it's plural or singular.

If you wrote "they were remaining," that's absolutely fine by me.

Okay, right, let's move on to our main task.

Number two is looking at pluperfect in full sentences.

Now, unlike our pronoun work we've been doing recently, the great thing about this is you don't have to worry about restructuring the sentences or redoing word order.

It's just about keeping your eye in when you get to your verbs and just triple-check what tense is going on.

Let's have a look at this first one, puer ambulaverat.

Now I've taken the liberty of just doing step one for myself and for you already, but actually, no, it's for me, because I am doing the first one, and I don't want any help! So a puer is a boy, ambula has to do with walking.

That's step one, done! I didn't even have to do anything! And then step two, we look, you check that verb.

And we check the person and we take the tense.

So ambulaverat, now this bit's already done, but we still go person and tense.

T, I'll do it, is , so it would be I, you, she, but here we've got a puer, and it's probably our nominative, so let's go for he.

Done, T's done, and then we look at era and we know era is had.

So it's going to be he had, and then we'd make it make sense, he had walked.

Okay, and then that's person and tense.

All done, step two's done.

And then we go back to the rest of our words and there's probably going to be some nouns or adjectives, and we just check they're in the right case, and what's going to work out.

been changed anyway.

Therefore, it's nominative singular.

Nom, singular, and that's our verb.

Nice and simple in that case.

We translate in the order of nominative verb.

Accusative, we haven't got an accusative, so we're just doing nominative verb, and we see that this he here, because we have a nominative, is in brackets.

So we get the boy had walked and then that's it! The boy had walked.

Full stop, step four done.

Now, just because you're an expert in pluperfect tenses, it does not mean for second that you get to forget all the hard work that we've done on sentences where it is accusative at the beginning.

So what on Earth is wrong with matrem salutaveram? I've got that right, actually, Mr. Ferber.

It means the mother had greeted.

You've got era, that means had.

And there's mother.

It's right.

What's wrong with that translation? What should it be? 10 seconds.

Four, two, one, and time.

So look, era's been correctly translated as had.

Well done, but matrem, nominative or accusative? Nominative, accusative, matrem is what letter? Singular accusatives end in M.

However, I'm not putting that in yet because we've skipping some steps.

So let's go back to these steps, my word beginnings.

Is he translated or she translated mother? Yep, have we translated greet? Yeah.

So you can see at this stage where the student would go, "Look, I've done mother, I've done greeting, I've done the had, the mother had greeted.

It's in the bag, it's fine." Done, tense is done, excuse me? Yeah, the person who had done the greeting, eram, eram.

It's going to be tellin' me? Thank you, I.

Yes, we need to have, it's actually going to be I, had greeted, isn't it? All right, so that's where this person went wrong.

Then, another thing, and this is no excuse for getting this wrong, is you go over here in our word endings, and we check the case.

And look, what letter do singular accusatives end in? M, so we know this is an M.

It's an accusative.

It's going on this side of the sentence, this side.

That's why you put that hand up, isn't it? Acc, all right? So, and then this is our verb, it's in the pluperfect, so it's going to be I had greeted the mother.

That mother's not doing any greeting.

Accusative, receiving the verb, so I had greeted the.

I know it's a bit of a clunky order of sentence, sorry, in terms of the layout here, the setup.

I had greeted the mother, and we're done.

Nom, so look, do you remember, we did this when we were doing relative pronouns? You want verb plus nominative there, all right? 'Cause the nominative's in the verb, is.

So you'd use that, but you'd do the end, then the verb, then the accusative, I had greeted, all right? Don't forget that.

There'll be one in the practise sentences, okay? Don't make the mistake that that student did.

Now, the next thing to keep your eye out for is, sentences where you've got both an erat, you've got a form of eram or poteram in there, and the pluperfect.

I've already given the game away a bit here, but what does mean? Okay, answer's in three, two, and so, erat, it was, yeah? Whereas , that's a regular imperfect.

This is your pluperfect, had not returned.

Let's do another one.

What's the difference between those two erams? Answer in three, two, pause if you need to, and one, good, so this one is your pluperfect.

I had carried a huge gift.

This is irregular imperfect, I was not able to stand.

Right, now, the last thing we're going to look at, before you get on to translating sentences on your own, is some revision of pluperfect, well, we've just done that, that's not revision, but also looking at comparison of adjectives with pluperfect, and also, relative clauses, how to translate the word quam with the comparison adjectives and with pluperfects.

Let's have a little look at some.

Again, we've got a sentence here, , all right? And I've already done step one.

We've got we, our ingredients are we, dog, fierce, not, see, so step one is done.

Now, as usual for the pluperfect, I go to my verb, and I triple-check person and tense.

So my verb is videramus, and I was thinking, , do it with me, who's doing ? Is going to be we, thank you, so we, done, person, done.

Now I check my tense, era, it's going to be, yeah, it's going to be we had, thank you.

Now we had see, we had seen.

Era's done, tense is done, okay? So that's step two done.

We're fine.

Step three, I look at my word endings.

Well, that's we, that's accusative, that's an adjective, so it links to my accusative, that means not, so we had not seen the fierce dog.

Done, and no! Stop, look! Comparison, you've got to check your comparison of adjectives! Ferociorem, you've got.

Does this one mean very fierce? Nodding, shaking heads? Ferociorem means, shaking heads, does it mean more fierce or fiercer? Yeah? Nodding heads, , fiercer, yeah? , remember this? Now we have a go and we see we had not seen a fiercer, thank you, or a more fierce dog, do we see that? 'Cause we've done our comparison, and then we translate in the normal order.

Right? Let's have a look.

We had not seen a fiercer dog.

I'm in such a hurry, look, don't write as quickly and as hurriedly as I do; take your time, okay? So we see that comparison, that why it's comparative, comparative.

Now, where things get tricky, even more tricky, is this next example here.

Step one, I've done for myself, and also for you; that's nice of me.

We've got was, house, beautiful, than or which for quam, and I've taken out the whom, because it's to do with a house and I know that you wouldn't say "the house whom." And we've got viderant and see again.

Right, so first thing we do is we find our verb, which I know is, we've got erat over here.

Hmm, that's tricky, isn't it? Is that going to mean had? It was lucky of me to put that erat means was.

I know you know erat means was by now.

So that's one verb there, and that's imperfect.

That's fine.

Let's do it was, , all right? Then over to viderant, and I triple-check everything.

Person, who did, or had done, maybe, viderant? In three, two, one.

It's going to be, good.

That one, be they, so the ant is done, they.

Am I going to have enough room? I think we will.

Person, then I check my tense.

Erant versus erunt.

Erant is? Good, it's pluperfect, they had.

That's a D.

Seen, era's done, tense is done.

Step two is done.

Now, this is where you go.

Well, we just did the sentences like this, and then you can put, so that's my verb, you can put some lesson words wherever you want them to make them make sense, so let's go for they had seen a.

That's not , that's comparison or something.

They had seen a more beautiful house than it was.

They had seen a more beautiful house than it was.

That makes sense! That's fine.

No! Okay, right, let's have a look.

We go to our comparison, comparison.

Is that going to mean more beautiful? It's going to mean, good, very beautiful or the most beautiful.

Lovely, that's why I left all this gap here.

The most beautiful.

Then we make it make sense and put it together, okay? The house, now the house was, the house was the most beautiful than they had seen? The house was the most beautiful, thank you.

Now, because we have this as an adjective here, because this is superlative, you're not going to need quam, meaning than.

Quam meaning than is only used with comparative, more beautiful than, fiercer than, if the superlative in quam is going to be your relative clause, meaning which.

It was, and I won't write it out 'cause it'll take ages, but it was the most beautiful house, or the house was the most beautiful, which they had seen, full stop.

Did we get that? Course you do.

Okay, let's see some more examples.

Have a look at this for me.

Which of those two? Good.

It's not easy, is it? Look, pulcherrima is very, or the most, so it's this one, your city was the most beautiful which I had seen.

What about this? Answer in three, two, one.

So, well done, correct.

This is your comparative.

You, plural, had not seen a fiercer dog, or a more fierce dog, than ours.

Answer's in three, two, and correct.

This is your superlative.

It was the angriest crowd which we had seen.

Okay, it's time for you to do one of these on your own.

Pen at the ready, pressing pause to do, , on your own for two minutes.

Press pause and go! Okay, different colour pen at the ready.

Let's see how we did.

So press pause here if you need to, to check your answers.

Focus on the green correct answer here.

This is here to help you if you need to trace where things might have gone wrong, which they won't have done, 'cause you'll be fine.

Good, so the woman was the saddest or the most miserable, whom, now which really is fine, isn't it? You probably would say that in English.

The woman was the saddest which I had seen.

The woman was the most miserable.

She was the most miserable woman, or she was the saddest woman whom or which I've seen, they're also fine, too.

I think we're ready to do some of these on our own, are we not? Yes, of course we are, Mr. Ferber.

Well, here ya go, then! So, use everything we've done in order to help you do these sentences, really scrutinise endings of each verb, and then keep your eye on these adjectives here, as well, in those clauses.

Let's have a go, pressing pause in three, two, and off you go! And now, not forgetting that challenge, have a look at that for me.

And now, switching to a different colour pen so we can see how on Earth we did! So, pressing pause here.

In a few seconds, I will talk you through anything that was tricky, any synonyms, for example, in the sentences.

So for number one, towards the house, absolutely fine.

I was remaining is fine.

You had run away is fine by me.

Make sure you add singular, if you didn't, although it is correct if you just wrote "you." And if you'd written villa instead of house, that's absolutely fine by me.

I have not looked at is okay for , No, I've not, let's go for seen, sorry, let's hit that back.

Four, let's do to six.

Press pause here.

Yep, so the dog was the fiercest or the most fierce.

It was the most fierce dog is also okay.

That's fine.

Which we had seen, when we returned, our mother, it's implied, should be our, with technically but it's implied here that it's our mother, so you can do that in Latin.

And the father had looked, you can say, had sought, you can say.

But he was not able to find his daughter.

Good, did we spot that accusative first? The daughter's not doing any.

Not lacking any ability there.

Lovely.

Answers to the challenge are here, as follows.

And all that's left now, there's two things that are left, and one is to do that exit quiz.

And you already knew how to do that before.

You've said "valete" to me and I've said "valete" to you, so extremely well done, era, had, era, had, except for eram, which is I was, and poteram, which is I was able, you know that, okay? Valete, very well done, and I'll see you on the translation lesson for the pluperfect.

We'll be starting Ulysses' return to Ithaca.

Ooh, what's going to happen? Okay, I'll see you there.

Extremely well done.

Valete, bye-bye.