Breakdown of Elle avait égaré les clés parce qu'elle s'était trompée.
être
to be
elle
she
avoir
to have
parce que
because
la clé
the key
se tromper
to make a mistake
égarer
to misplace
Questions & Answers about Elle avait égaré les clés parce qu'elle s'était trompée.
Why does this sentence use avait for the first verb and s'était for the second verb?
Both verbs are in the Plus-que-parfait (pluperfect), which is formed using the imperfect tense of the helper verb plus the past participle. Most verbs, like égarer (to misplace), use avoir, so we get avait égaré. However, all reflexive verbs (verbs with se) use être as their helper. Because the second verb is se tromper, it needs être, giving us s'était trompée.
Why is there an extra 'e' at the end of trompée but not on égaré?
This relates to the helper verbs. When you use avoir, the past participle (égaré) doesn't change to match the subject. But when you use être—which we do here because se tromper is reflexive—the past participle must agree in gender and number with the subject. Since elle is feminine singular, we add an e to make trompée.
The English translation says 'she had made a mistake', but I don't see a word for 'mistake'. How does s'était trompée mean that?
What does the plus-que-parfait tense add to the meaning here compared to the passé composé?
The plus-que-parfait acts as the 'past of the past.' We use it to show that an action had already happened before another point in the past. If you are telling a story in the past tense, you use the plus-que-parfait to look even further back and explain the background, like the fact that she had already lost the keys due to a previous mistake.
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