Breakdown of L'examen a été une catastrophe parce que j'avais perdu la mémoire.
je
I
être
to be
une
a / an (feminine)
avoir
to have
parce que
because
l'examen
the exam (m)
perdre
to lose
la catastrophe
the disaster (f)
la mémoire
the memory (f)
Questions & Answers about L'examen a été une catastrophe parce que j'avais perdu la mémoire.
Why do we use avais perdu instead of the passé composé (j'ai perdu)?
This highlights the core of the plus-que-parfait (pluperfect) tense. We use it to talk about an action that happened before another past action. First, you lost your memory (the older past action), and because of that, the exam was a disaster (the more recent past action).
How exactly is j'avais perdu formed?
It is built just like the passé composé, but instead of using the present tense for the helper verb, you use the imperfect tense. Here, it is the imperfect of avoir (j'avais) plus the past participle of perdre (perdu). It translates perfectly to the English 'had lost'.
Why does the sentence use a été instead of était for 'was'?
Why does the French say la mémoire (the memory) when the English translation says 'my memory'?
In French, when referring to body parts or mental faculties, you usually use the definite article (la) instead of a possessive adjective (ma) if it is already clear who it belongs to. Since the subject is je, it is obvious whose memory was lost!
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