Genau
Topic test · B1

Plusquamperfekt test

13questions
8minutes
60%pass mark
Start the test Read the topic first

One question at a time, the clock runs. Answers stay closed like a real exam: you see every correct answer with its explanation at the end. Score 60% to finish the topic.

Topic test

13 questions, easy to hard

Pick an option and press «Next». You can go back and change it. Anything left blank counts as wrong.

Nachdem ich gegessen , ging ich los.

After I had eaten, I left.

hatte. The main clause is in the Präteritum (ging), so the nachdem clause drops one step back — into the Plusquamperfekt.

Der Zug schon abgefahren.

The train had already left.

war. abfahren is a motion verb and takes ist in the Perfekt — so it takes war in the Plusquamperfekt. The choice of auxiliary never changes.

Which is the German for “I had eaten”?

Ich hatte gegessen. English “had + past participle” is the direct counterpart of the Plusquamperfekt. habe gegessen = have eaten / ate, aß = ate (written language).

Which one is wrong?

The first one is wrong. Only nachdem asks for the tense shift. bevor already shows the order itself, so both sides stay in the same tense.

Nachdem er angekommen , rief er mich an.

After he had arrived, he called me.

war. ankommen is a motion verb → it belongs to the sein group. Because the main clause is in the Präteritum, the subordinate clause is Plusquamperfekt: war angekommen.

Nachdem ich die Hausaufgaben gemacht , gehe ich ins Kino.

After I have done my homework, I am going to the cinema.

habe. The shift is always one step. Here the main clause is in the present (gehe ich ins Kino), so the nachdem clause drops to the Perfekt, not the Plusquamperfekt. hatte only comes when the main clause is in the past. bin is out too: machen is not a motion verb; it belongs to the haben group.

Perfekt: “Sie ist um sieben aufgestanden.” — Which is the same sentence in the Plusquamperfekt?

“She got up at seven” → “She had got up at seven.”

Sie war um sieben aufgestanden. The shortcut works one to one: ist → war, and you leave the Partizip II alone (aufgestanden stays the same). aufstehen is a change-of-state verb; a verb that takes ist in the Perfekt takes war here, not hatte. Sie stand um sieben auf is the Präteritum: it means “she got up”, not “she had got up”.

In which sentence do the tenses match correctly?

After the train had left, we took a taxi.

Nachdem der Zug abgefahren war, nahmen wir ein Taxi. There must be exactly one step between the two sides: the subordinate clause in the Plusquamperfekt (war abgefahren), the main clause in the Präteritum (nahmen). In the second sentence both sides are Plusquamperfekt, in the third both are Präteritum — in neither does the tense show which event came first, yet nachdem requires exactly that.

Which one should you not write in the B1 written exam?

“Ich hab gegessen gehabt” = I had eaten (colloquial, southern Germany) · “Ich hatte gegessen” = I had eaten (standard) · “Der Film hatte schon angefangen” = The film had already started.

Ich hab gegessen gehabt. This is the “double Perfekt”: you hear it in everyday speech in southern Germany and Austria, but it has no place in written German and counts as a mistake in an exam. The other two are standard Plusquamperfekt — hatte gegessen and hatte angefangen — both built with a single auxiliary.

You are telling a friend about your evening yesterday. Which one would Germans say in conversation?

First I ate, then I left.

Ich habe zuerst gegessen und bin dann gegangen. When they simply line up two events, Germans say zuerst … dann and leave both sides in the Perfekt. In speech you hear the Plusquamperfekt almost only in nachdem sentences. The second option throws both events into “the past of the past” — with no anchor moment left, it is used neither in speech nor in writing and counts as a mistake in an exam. The third option is a correct sentence but says something else: “I had eaten first”. What you are telling is a plain sequence, so the Perfekt stays.

In the Plusquamperfekt, the auxiliary verbs are always used in the present tense (haben / sein).

In the Plusquamperfekt, the auxiliary verbs haben and sein are used in the Präteritum (hatte / war).

Building “He had gone”: Er gegangen.

Verbs of motion (gehen) take the auxiliary war in the Plusquamperfekt.

Build the sentence: After I had eaten, he came.

Tap the pieces to build the sentence

When the subordinate clause (Nachdem...) comes first, the main clause continues straight with the verb.
Quick rules

The rules in three lines

The full topic lives on its own page. This is only the core you need for the test.

  1. Push your Perfekt sentence back one step

    Take a Perfekt sentence you already know and move only the auxiliary verb into the past. Do not touch the Partizip II; that is all the Plusquamperfekt is.

    Ich habe gegessen → Ich hatte gegessen.

  2. The auxiliary is the same as in the Perfekt

    You are not memorising a new list: a verb that takes sein in the Perfekt takes war here, and a verb that takes haben takes hatte.

    Der Zug ist abgefahren → Der Zug war abgefahren.

  3. nachdem pushes back one step

    The subordinate clause always sits one step behind the main clause. If the main clause is in the Präteritum, the subordinate clause is Plusquamperfekt; if the main clause is in the present, the subordinate clause stays in the Perfekt.

    Nachdem ich gegessen hatte, ging ich los.

  4. bevor needs no shift

    Because the conjunction itself shows the order, both sides of a bevor clause stay in the same tense. Do not apply the rule to every conjunction.

    Bevor ich losging, aß ich etwas.

  5. In speech, this tense is almost absent

    In everyday German two events are put in order with zuerst … dann. You will mostly see the Plusquamperfekt in nachdem clauses and in written German.

    Ich habe zuerst gegessen und bin dann gegangen.

Traps

Commonly mixed up

Where a direct translation breaks. The hard questions come from here.

  • Bevor ich gegessen hatte, ging ich los.

    Bevor ich losging, aß ich etwas.

    Only nachdem asks for the shift. bevor already shows the order itself, so both sides stay in the same tense.

  • Der Zug hatte abgefahren.

    Der Zug war abgefahren.

    abfahren is a motion verb. A verb that takes ist in the Perfekt takes war here; hatte does not go everywhere.

  • Nachdem ich gegessen habe, ging ich los.

    Nachdem ich gegessen hatte, ging ich los.

    The two tenses do not match. Because the main clause is in the Präteritum, the subordinate clause drops one step back, into the Plusquamperfekt.

  • Ich hab gegessen gehabt.

    Ich hatte gegessen.

    The “double Perfekt” is heard in everyday speech in southern Germany and Austria; it has no place in written German and counts as a mistake in an exam.

  • Ich hatte gegessen und dann war ich gegangen.

    Ich habe zuerst gegessen und bin dann gegangen.

    The grammar of this sentence is correct — the problem is usage. In a plain sequence, if you throw both events into “the past of the past”, there is no anchor moment left to look back from; Germans stay in the Perfekt here.