Haley

[cerulean oriole]

Please be patient

Our volunteers look into many questions every day; sometimes it takes them a little while to answer.

Pro tip: you can rename the thread title with `.tr <thread name>`

Make it descriptive, including relevant context, but also to the point. This way you improve your chances of getting a more relevant and specific answer.

[granite knot]

i suppose the thing that gives me trouble here is "Comme"

[serene galleon]

"Comme" in this context has the same meaning as "puisque" or "car"

[granite knot]

so like, "because"?

"Comme il était arrivé trop tard, il est rentré chez lui"
that good then?

[silver drum]

What does étaite even mean

[serene galleon]

I've never heard of that word before, but please create a new thread so questions don't get tangled up

[spring herald]

In French, there is a past tense called le plus-que-parfait, and it describes an action that occured before another action. It's a compound tense (i.e. it has two parts) and it's formed by using the correct auxiliary verb (avoir or être) in l'imparfait plus the past participle of the main verb.

Here, there are two actions in the past happening at different times. Through context, you can determine that "il ... arrivé" happened before "il ... rentré", which is why « Comme il était arrivé trop tard, il est rentré chez lui. » is the correct answer.