Pretérito Mais-que-perfeito Composto do Indicativo

The pretérito mais-que-perfeito do indicativo is the tense used to indicate an event that took place in the past before another event. As the name suggests, it’s beyond (“more than”) the pretérito perfeito tense.
Unlike with pretérito perfeito, the pretérito mais-que-perfeito’s simple and compound forms both have the same meaning. The compound form we’re going to cover in this Learning Note is the one that is most commonly used. (You can learn about the simple form here.)

How It Is Formed

The mais-que-perfeito composto is formed like this:
auxiliary verb ter in the pretérito imperfeito + the past participle of the main verb
This corresponds to the past perfect in English. Here are a couple examples:
Quando chegaste, ele já tinha tomado banhoWhen you arrived, he had already taken a showerCommunity
O Miguel já tinha feito o jantar quando chegasteMiguel had already made dinner when you arrivedCommunity Slow audio Play audio
In other words, these things had already happened by the time you arrived.
The adverb já is often (but not always) found with the mais-que-perfeito composto. It emphasizes the completion of those past actions. Quando is a common conjunction to use, as shown in the 2 examples above, as well as antes debefore, ahead ofCommunity Slow audio Play audio , as in Ele tinha saído antes de tu chegaresHe had left before you arrivedCommunity Slow audio Play audio .

Implied Context

Given the right context, we don’t always need to explicitly mention the subsequent action. Sometimes it is just implied, or there was enough context within the conversation to make the sequence of events clear.
For example, if someone said “Man, I was SO hungry when I got home last night!”, then you could reply “Yeah, you really were! Lucky for you, o Miguel já tinha feito o jantar.”
Other examples:

• Ele tinha avisado que isto ia acontecerHe had warned that this would happenCommunity – Implies a later event which made his previous warning relevant
• Não tínhamos falado desse assunto aindaWe hadn't talked about that subject yetCommunity – Implies the conversation eventually took place, or was expected to happen

Use Cases

Here are a couple more examples of how the mais-que-perfeito composto can be used to refer to a past action that happened before another past action:
Só dei conta que eles tinham saído quando vi a luz apagadaI only realized they had left when I saw the light was offCommunity Slow audio Play audio
Eu já tinha ouvido falar dessa banda, antes de tu ma mostraresI had already heard of that band before you showed it to meCommunity Slow audio Play audio
It can also be used when talking about hypothetical situations in the past, usually in the main clause, with the conjunction seifCommunity Slow audio Play audio Conjunction in the dependent clause. It serves as an alternative to the conditional mood. (They are interchangeable in all the following examples.)
Note: The imperfect subjunctive is the tense used in the dependent clause.
Se ele tivesse estudado, tinha passado no exameIf he had studied, he would have passed the examCommunity Slow audio Play audio
Se soubessemos que não vinhas, não tinha feito tanta comidaIf we'd known you weren't coming, I wouldn't have made so much foodCommunity Slow audio Play audio
Eles não tinham feito isso se eu lá tivesse estadoThey wouldn't have done that if I'd been thereCommunity Slow audio Play audio
Keep in mind that these hypotheticals are all about the past, not the future. Essentially, it’s about something that could have happened or that could have been different.