The Dutch pluperfect (had gedaan): the past before the past

The pluperfect (in Dutch, the voltooid verleden tijd) is the past before the past: it marks an event that had already happened before another moment in the past. Toen ik aankwam, was de trein al vertrokken. (When I arrived, the train had already left.)

Take hebben or zijn in the simple past — had / hadden or was / waren — and add the past participle at the end of the clause: Ik had gewerkt. (I had worked.)

1. Choose the same helper the verb uses in the present perfect: hebben for most verbs, zijn for verbs of movement or change. See hebben or zijn?.
2. Put that helper in the simple past: hebben → had (singular) / hadden (plural); zijn → was (singular) / waren (plural).
3. Add the past participle at the end: Zij waren al gegaan. (They had already gone.)

The pluperfect is the present perfect with the helper moved one step further back in time. Compare:

• To show one past event happened before another: Ze had het boek al gelezen voordat de film uitkwam. (She had already read the book before the film came out.)
• Often together with toen (when), nadat (after) or al (already): Nadat we hadden gegeten, gingen we naar huis. (After we had eaten, we went home.)
• In an als clause about an unreal past, next to the conditional: Als ik dat had geweten, was ik thuisgebleven. (If I had known that, I would have stayed home.)

The helper follows the same hebben or zijn split as the present perfect, so it is had for most verbs but was / waren for movement and change verbs: Ik was gevallen (I had fallen), not ik had gevallen; Ik had gegeten (I had eaten), not ik was gegeten. Do not replace the pluperfect with the present perfect when you are ordering two past events — the earlier one needs had or was, not heb or ben.