UNIT NINETEEN The past perfect tense  Use of the past perfect 1 The past perfect (or pluperfect) normally indicates a past event which happened before another past event, as in the English ‘I  had fi nished  shower- ing when I heard the doorbell’, ‘By the time it  fi nished, I  had had  enough.’ It is thus normally used in sentences where there is another past tense, or some other reference to a past event: It is also often used on its own, where a more recent event is referred to, or implied, in the context: 2 Sometimes, when the past perfect is used on its own, the event nearer to the present is purely implicit: Avevo fatto quella torta per te, non per Paolo. Tullio aveva portato i CD. Francesca era uscita. I made that tart for you, not for Paolo. [e.g. that’s why I’m so annoyed that Paolo’s eaten it] Tullio had brought the CDs. [e.g. the ones I told you we were listening to] Francesca had gone out. [e.g. which is why I didn’t see her last night] Quando sono arrivato  [present perfect]  avevano  appena  fi nito [past perfect]  di cenare. Quel giorno  ero  [imperfect]  molto contenta perché  avevo passato [past perfect]  l’esame. Prima di imprestare  [in fi nitive] l’auto a Marco,  avevo fatto [past perfect]  il pieno. When I arrived they had just  fi nished dinner. That day I was very happy because I’d passed the exam. Before lending the car to Marco, I’d fi lled up.