The past infinitive: How to use and form it in French?

Use the French past infinitive to describe something that happened before another event mentioned in the same sentence. The past infinitive is not a tense, but rather a form of a verb which uses the infinitive of an auxiliary verb, avoir (meaning to have) or être (meaning to be), along with a past participle. Let’s look at an example:

If you would like to know how to form a past infinitive, which words it is used with, how to translate it into English, and much more, you’ve landed at the right place! Let’s get started.

A French past infinitive describes an action that happened before the action of the main verb. Past infinitives in French can only provide more information about the main verb in the sentence. Unlike the past infinitive verb, the main verb has its own subject and is conjugated. A past infinitive is never used on its own in a sentence!

As you will discover as you carry on reading, the main verb doesn’t have to be in the passé composé, as it is above, for a past infinitive to be used.

To form the past infinitive, use an auxiliary verb (either avoir or être) in the infinitive form and a past participle of the verb you’re using. For example, to change the infinitive of the verb marcher (meaning to walk) into the past infinitive, you use the past participle of marcher (marché), along with the correct auxiliary verb in the infinitive: avoir marché (meaning having walked).

When using the past infinitive in a sentence, remember that there must also always be a main conjugated verb with a subject. There are a couple rules to remember about the sentence’s subject and the main verb aside from the past infinitive. Let’s take a look.

• Both the past infinitive and the main conjugated verb of the sentence have the same subject:

  past infinitivemain verb

  Après avoir vu le docteur, il est allé à la pharmacie.

  Translation: After seeing the doctor, he went to the pharmacy.

  In this example, it is the same person who visited the doctor and the pharmacy (one subject).

  In the two sentences above, you’ll see that both the passé composé (il est allé) and the present tense (nous les remercions) are used with the past infinitive. When forming sentences with the past infinitive, remember that:

• It is most common to use the past infinitive alongside the passé composé, but it can accompany any tense. Here are a few examples:

  Past infinitive clause	Main verb clause	Main verb tense
  Après avoir déposé nos bagages à l’hôtel, nous … Translation: After dropping our luggage at the hotel, we…	irons à l'exposition Monet. Translation: will visit the Monet exhibition.	future simple
  	aurions aimé déjeuner au restaurant. Translation: would have liked to have lunch at the restaurant.	past conditional
  	nous reposons. Translation: we’re having a rest.	present

Now, let’s take a look at how to translate the past infinitive into English.

When translating a French past infinitive into English, the translation is not typically literal, as you might have noticed while reading the translations of the examples I have used so far. Here are two examples:

• après avoir bavardé is translated with the “-ing” form of the verb: “after chatting.” The literal translation, however, is “after having chatted.”

• après être sorti means, literally, “after having gone out,” but a much better English translation is “after going out.”

You know that certain verbs need to take the auxiliary être and others need to take avoir, but does the auxiliary have an impact on the translation? The answer is not at all! Just use the “-ing” form of the English verb!

Now you understand how to form and translate the past infinitive, so let’s move on to the prepositions that are used alongside it.

Use the French past infinitive after certain prepositions, phrases, and verbs followed by de. One of the most common instances in which you will use a past infinitive is with prepositions, the most frequent being après (meaning after). This is why après is the past infinitive trigger that I have used so far in my examples! But you can be so much more creative than me. Let’s take a look at some of these triggers for the past infinitive.

You can use the past infinitive after certain prepositions or phrases, such as adjectival phrases:

Certain verbs followed by the preposition de will also necessarily be followed by the past infinitive. Here are some examples of these verbs + de:

• être heureux de (meaning to be happy to):

  past infinitive

  Je suis heureuse d’avoir gagné.

  Translation: I’m happy to have won.

• être gêné de (meaning to be embarrassed to):

  past infinitive

  Elle est gênée de ne pas t’avoir reconnu.

  Translation: She is embarrassed that she didn't recognize you.

• regretter de (meaning to regret to):

  past infinitive

  Ils regrettent d’avoir râté le début de son discours.

  Translation: They regretted missing the beginning of his speech.

• promettre de (meaning to promise to):

  past infinitive

  Elle promet d’avoir tout installé avant l’arrivée des clients.

  Translation: She promises to have everything installed before the customers arrive.

• être déçu de (meaning to be disappointed to):

  past infinitive

  Les archéologues sont déçus de ne pas avoir trouvé la nécropole.

  Translation: The archaeologists are disappointed not to have found the necropolis.

Now that you know how to form a past infinitive and which prepositions and verbs + de it is preceded by, let’s look at the word order of the past infinitive used with other structures.

The past infinitive has special word order rules to learn in negative structures and sentences with pronouns. Let's have a look.

When using the past infinitive in French, keep these tips we’ve learned in mind:

• You will use the past infinitive as one part of your sentence, but the other part will use a main verb. Both parts almost always will have the same subject.

• The action described by the past infinitive happens before the action of the main verb.

• The past infinitive is always formed with the infinitive forms of the auxiliary verbs avoir or être + a past participle.

• The rules for the auxiliaries and the past participle agreements are the same as when using other compound tenses.

• A past infinitive is mainly used after the preposition après, but is also used with avant de, sans, pour, merci de, prière de, désolé de, or trop + adj. + pour. Similarly, certain verbs + de will be followed by the past infinitive.

• Negative structures and pronouns (including reflexive pronouns) go before the past infinitive.

Now you’ve read all the rules, are you ready to test your skills? Head over to our French past infinitive activities! We hope you enjoy them!