Why do the french call the past tense the past perfect?

Answer 1

There are several different tenses in French which express things that happened in the past. The imparfait expresses things that were repeated or were continuing in the past. For instance: When I was a little girl, I spent every Saturday with my grandmother. The passe compose expresses things that were started and finished in the past. Eg: When I was ten, I bought my first bicycle.

The French do not have a tense which they call the past perfect. The tense that we refer to as the past perfect is called "perfect" because it is an occurrence that has been completed in the past (as opposed to something that was continuous or repeating, which would be expressed by the imparfait). GThey do have a tense called the plusque parfait (literally, more than perfect), which expresses things like: By the time I was ten, I had learned three languages. Lorsque j'avais dix ans, j'avais appris trois langues. These are actions that were completed before another action took place - I learned three languages (first completion) before I turned ten (second event).

hope that helps :)

Answer 2

In French, the past perfect tense is called "passé composé," which translates to "compound past" in English. It is different from the past perfect tense in English, which is called "plus-que-parfait" in French. The "plus-que-parfait" in French is used to describe an action that happened before another action in the past.