Le conditionnel passé The French conditional perfect (a.k.a. the past conditional) is used for expressing actions that should, could or would have happened. It is often used for expressing regrets. It is a compound tense that’s formed with the auxiliary verbs avoir or être conjugated in the present conditional and the past participle. For example, …
le futur antérieur The future perfect (or le futur antérieur / past future tense) is used to describe actions which will have happened in the future. For example, J’aurai mangé (I will have eaten). The future perfect often appears in sentences with an element of anteriority: Action A will have happened before action B.
le passé du subjonctif The French past subjunctive (le passé du subjonctif) is used in the same way as the present subjunctive where certain verbs, conjunctions and impersonal expressions require the subjunctive to express wishes, emotions and doubts.
le plus-que-parfait du subjonctif The pluperfect or past perfect subjunctive (le plus-que-parfait du subjonctif) is a mood used in French literature. It is equivalent to the the past subjunctive in spoken French. It differs from the imperfect subjunctive in that the past action is completed.
The French imperfect subjunctive mood (l’imparfait du subjonctif) is used mostly in literature and formal writing. It’s used for verbs, conjunctions and impersonal expressions which require the subjunctive mood and where the action in the subordinate clause is related to the past but not complete.
