Learn French: J'ai cherché mon téléphone, il avait glissé sous le siège. - I searched for my phone, it had slipped under the seat.

J'ai cherché mon téléphone, il avait glissé sous le siège.

I searched for my phone, it had slipped under the seat.

Breakdown of J'ai cherché mon téléphone, il avait glissé sous le siège.

Questions & Answers about J'ai cherché mon téléphone, il avait glissé sous le siège.

Why do we use avait glissé instead of a glissé?

Avait glissé is the Plus-que-parfait (pluperfect) tense, which translates to "had slipped." We use this tense to show that an action happened before another action in the past. The phone slipped first, and then later you searched for it (ai cherché).

Doesn't glisser describe a motion? Why does it use avoir as its helper verb instead of être?

It's true that many verbs of motion (like tomber or aller) use être in compound tenses. However, glisser (to slip or slide) is an exception and takes avoir. That is why we use the imperfect of avoir (avait) to form its Plus-que-parfait here.

Why isn't it J'ai cherché pour mon téléphone, since in English we say "searched for"?

The French verb chercher already means "to look for" or "to search for" all by itself. Adding pour is a common mistake for English speakers, but in French, you just connect the verb directly to the object: chercher mon téléphone.

Why does the sentence use il when talking about a phone?