Breakdown of Le magicien venait de commencer le spectacle de magie.
de
of / from / any (in negative sentences) / about (concerning)
commencer
to start
venir
to come
le spectacle
the show, performance
Questions & Answers about Le magicien venait de commencer le spectacle de magie.
Why is venait in the imparfait (imperfect) tense here?
The structure venir de + an infinitive verb (like commencer) means to have just done something. To say someone had just done something in a past narrative, we put venir into the imparfait. If we used the present tense (il vient de commencer), it would mean he has just started right now.
Could I use the plus-que-parfait (pluperfect) to say 'had just started' instead?
The plus-que-parfait (il avait commencé) simply translates to 'he had started'. It tells us an action happened before another past action, but it completely misses the 'just'! To express that the start happened immediately before a moment in the past, you must use venait de.
Wait, doesn't venir de usually mean 'to come from'?
Why is it spectacle de magie and not magie spectacle like in English?
In English, we often stack nouns together to describe things, like 'magic show' or 'coffee cup'. French does not do this! Instead, you generally start with the main noun (spectacle), insert the preposition de, and then add the describing noun (magie).