Breakdown of L'expert a ajouté qu'ils y étaient allés.
être
to be
ils
they (masculine/mixed)
avoir
to have
aller
to go
ajouter
to add
que
that (introducing a clause)
y
there (pronoun) / to it
l'expert
the expert (m)
Questions & Answers about L'expert a ajouté qu'ils y étaient allés.
Why is the second verb in the plus-que-parfait (étaient allés) instead of the passé composé?
This is the sequence of tenses in reported speech! The expert was talking about something that happened before he spoke. His original words were likely in the passé composé: "Ils y sont allés" (They went there). Because the introducing verb (a ajouté) is in the past, the reported action shifts one step further back in time, becoming the plus-que-parfait (étaient allés).
I see the pronoun y here. Why is it placed exactly where it is?
The pronoun y (meaning "there") always goes immediately before the conjugated verb it belongs to. In a compound tense like the plus-que-parfait, the conjugated verb is the auxiliary (étaient), so y must go right before it: ils y étaient allés.
Why does allés have an "s" at the end?
In compound tenses like the plus-que-parfait, verbs that take être as their auxiliary must have their past participle agree with the subject in gender and number. Since aller is an être verb, and the subject ils is masculine plural, we add an "s" to make it allés.
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