Breakdown of Le conducteur a confirmé qu'il avait endommagé la portière.
il
he
avoir
to have
que
that (introducing a clause)
confirmer
to confirm
le conducteur
the driver
endommager
to damage (e.g., property, structures)
la portière
the car door
Questions & Answers about Le conducteur a confirmé qu'il avait endommagé la portière.
Why do we use avait endommagé (plus-que-parfait) instead of the passé composé here?
This is the rule of sequence of tenses in reported speech. Because the introducing verb (a confirmé) is in a past tense, the action being reported must shift one step further back in time. The driver's original action happened in the past, so it backshifts from the passé composé to the plus-que-parfait (avait endommagé).
What would the driver's original, direct quote look like in French?
The direct quote would be: "J'ai endommagé la portière." When we convert this into reported speech after a past tense verb like a confirmé, the j' changes to il, and the passé composé (ai endommagé) turns into the plus-que-parfait (avait endommagé).
Is there a difference between la portière and la porte?
Why isn't it il était endommagé, since était means "was/had been"?
The verb endommager (to damage) uses avoir as its auxiliary verb, not être. To say "he had damaged", you use the imparfait of avoir (avait) plus the past participle (endommagé). If you said il était endommagé, it would translate to the passive voice: "it (or he) was damaged", which completely changes the meaning!
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