The Reported Perfect and Pluperfect
Report е заминал or беше заминал with бил заминал: Когато стигнали, влакът бил заминал. (When they arrived, the train had already left, reportedly.)
How It Works
1. One form for two tenses. Both the perfect (е заминал) and the pluperfect (беше заминал) are reported the same way. The auxiliary becomes бил and the participle stays:
- Влакът е заминал. / Влакът беше заминал. → Влакът бил заминал.
- Писмото е пристигнало. → Писмото било пристигнало.
- Гостите си бяха тръгнали. → Гостите си били тръгнали.
2. Agreement. Both words agree with the subject: Тя била заминала. Децата били заспали. In the first and second person the auxiliary stays: Казват, че сме били излезли. (They say we had already gone out.)
3. Main use: an earlier action in a reported story. In a story you are passing on, бил with the participle marks what had already happened before another event, just as the pluperfect does in ordinary storytelling:
- Когато пожарникарите пристигнали, огънят бил угаснал. (When the firefighters arrived, the fire had gone out, reportedly.)
- Разказват, че той бил живял десет години в Индия, преди да стане монах. (They say he had lived in India for ten years before becoming a monk.)
Compare the reported aorist: Когато стигнали, влакът заминал means the train left at that moment. Влакът бил заминал means it was already gone.
4. Keep it apart from similar forms.
- Бил with a passive participle is the reported passive: Мостът бил построен (The bridge was built, reportedly).
- Бил е заминал, with е, does not itself have the same overt renarrative morphology; it can mark a conclusion and may also occur in attributed speech (see conclusive forms).
- Other reported forms can take an extra бил to express doubt (see dubitative forms). This form already contains бил, so a doubtful version looks the same.
Examples (6)
- Когато стигнали на гарата, влакът бил заминал.
When they got to the station, the train had left, reportedly.
Бил заминал shows that the train left before they arrived.
- Писмото било пристигнало още в понеделник.
The letter had arrived back on Monday, they say.
Било and пристигнало both agree with the neuter noun писмото.
- Разказват, че когато го намерили, той бил загубил паметта си.
They say that when they found him, he had lost his memory.
The loss of memory happened before he was found.
- Тя била живяла в Париж, преди да се омъжи.
She had lived in Paris before she married, reportedly.
Била and живяла agree with тя. The verb after преди да stays in the present.
- Децата били заспали, когато родителите се прибрали.
The children had fallen asleep by the time their parents got home, reportedly.
Били заспали is plural to agree with децата.
- Казват, че сме били излезли, когато той се обадил.
They say we had already gone out when he called.
In the first person the auxiliary сме stays.
Common Mistakes
Letting only one of the two words agree with the subject.
Писмото бил пристигнало.Писмото било пристигнало.Both бил and the participle agree with the subject. Писмото is neuter, so both end in о.
Leaving out бил when the action had already happened.
Когато стигнали, влакът заминал.Когато стигнали, влакът бил заминал.If you mean the train was already gone, you need бил. Without it, the train leaves at the moment they arrive.
Using the indicative pluperfect when the exercise calls for overt renarrative marking of someone’s claim.
Според него влакът беше заминал.Според него влакът бил заминал.Беше does not itself mark the report as renarrative, though an explicitly attributed indicative pluperfect can be grammatical. Use бил with the participle when you want overt renarrative marking.
How It Connects
Learn This First
The reported perfect and pluperfect build on reported forms.
Related Patterns
- The Present Perfect
The ordinary perfect that this form reports.
Level 2 - The Reported Aorist
Without бил, the reported aorist tells an event at that moment, not before it.
Level 4 - The Reported Passive
Also built with бил, but with a passive participle: бил построен.
Level 5 - Conclusive Forms
Бил е заминал, with е, is the inferred counterpart.
Level 5
Learn Next
Patterns that build on this one.
Words in This Pattern
Practice The Reported Perfect and Pluperfect in Bubblegum
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