Learn French: Le parieur avait perdu son ticket avant le tirage. - The bettor had lost his ticket before the draw.

Avait perdu is the pluperfect tense (le plus-que-parfait). It is used to describe an action that occurred even further in the past, before another past event. Here, the bettor lost the ticket before the draw happened, so we use the imperfect of the auxiliary verb avoir followed by the past participle perdu.

Why do we use avant before le tirage instead of avant de?

You use avant directly before a noun, as seen here with le tirage. The phrase avant de is exclusively used before an infinitive verb. For example, if the sentence said "before drawing the numbers," you would use the infinitive: avant de tirer les numéros.

What is the root verb of parieur, and does it require the subjunctive?

The noun parieur (bettor) comes from the verb parier (to bet). Unlike conjunctions such as pourvu que that express a condition or hope and require the subjunctive, the phrase parier que takes the indicative. This is because placing a bet implies a strong conviction or certainty about an outcome rather than a doubt.

What does tirage mean in this context, and what verb is it related to?