Question 1

Why does this sentence use s'était instead of s'avait?

Accepted Answer

The verb here is s'installer (to settle or install oneself), which is a reflexive verb. In French, all reflexive verbs use être as their helping verb in compound tenses. Since this is the pluperfect tense (meaning 'had settled'), we use the imperfect of être (il était) along with the reflexive pronoun (s').

Question 2

What tense is s'était installé?

Accepted Answer

It is the plus-que-parfait (pluperfect). It translates to 'had settled'. You use it to talk about an action in the past that happened before another past event or point in time. Here, he had already settled abroad before the culture shock happened.

Question 3

Why is déjà placed exactly where it is?

Accepted Answer

In French compound tenses, short adverbs like déjà (already), toujours (always), and souvent (often) are placed between the conjugated helping verb (s'était) and the past participle (installé).

Question 4

I learned that 'before' is avant de. Why is it just avant here?

Accepted Answer

You use avant de when it is followed by an infinitive verb (for example, avant de partir, meaning 'before leaving'). When 'before' is followed by a noun, like ce choc culturel (this culture shock), you just use avant by itself.

Question 5

How does à l'étranger mean 'abroad'?

Accepted Answer

The word un étranger means a stranger or a foreigner, and étranger as an adjective means foreign. The fixed phrase à l'étranger literally translates to 'at the foreign' but is the standard French expression for 'abroad' or 'in a foreign country'.

Il s'était déjà installé à l'étranger avant ce choc culturel.

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