Passé simple - French Simple Past
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Passé simple - French Simple Past The passé simple (simple past or preterite) is the literary equivalent of the passé composé, which means that it is used only in formal writing (e.g., historical and literary writing) and very formal speech. In such writing and speech, the passé simple is used alongside l'imparfait, just as in everyday speech/writing, the passé composé and imparfait are used together. You will probably never need to actually use the passé simple, but it is important and easy to recognize it. The passé simple of -ER verbs is formed by dropping the -er and adding the passé simple endings: Singular 1st person Plural je -ai nous -âmes 2nd person tu -as vous -âtes 3rd person il -a ils -èrent Thus to conjugate parler, you would remove the -er to find the radical parl- and then add the appropriate endings: PARLER Singular 1st person je parlai nous parlâmes 2nd person tu parlas vous parlâtes 3rd person il ils parlèrent parla Plural All -er verbs (including aller) are conjugated according to this pattern, except for irregularities in verbs that end in -ger and -cer: MANGER LANCER je mangeai nous mangeâmes je lançai nous lançâmes tu mangeas vous mangeâtes tu lanças vous lançâtes il mangea ils mangèrent il lança ils lancèrent Because a g or a c followed by an a would make a hard g or c sound (like in gave or cave), an e has to be added after the g and the c has to change to a ç in the imparfait du subjonctif to keep the g soft (like in gel) and the c soft (as in cell). These are known as stem-changing verbs. Regular -IR and -RE verbs have the following endings: Singular 1st person Plural je -is nous -îmes 2nd person tu -is vous -îtes 3rd person il -it ils -irent Remove the -ir or -re and add the passé simple endings to get: FINIR RENDRE je finis nous finîmes je rendis nous rendîmes tu finis vous finîtes tu rendis vous rendîtes il finit finirent il rendit rendirent ils ils There are a few irregular verbs that have an irregular stem but use the regular ir/-re endings. s'asseoir s'ass- mettre m- conduire conduis- naître naqu- dire d- peindre peign- écrire écriv- prendre pr- faire f- rire r- joindre joign- voir v- Most irregular verbs with a past participle that end in -u use that past participle as their passé simple stem. These verbs and their stems are: avoir eu- pleuvoir plu- boire bu- pouvoir pu- connaître connu- recevoir reçu- courir couru- savoir su- croire cru- valoir valu- devoir du- vivre vécu- falloir fallu- vouloir voulu- lire lu- The endings for these verbs are Example: AVOIR je -s nous ^mes j' eus nous eûmes tu -s vous ^tes tu eus vous eûtes il -t ils -rent il eut ils eurent And of course there are always some verbs that are just plain ÊTRE MOURIR VENIR je fus mourus vins tu fus mourus vins il fut mourut vint nous fûmes mourûmes vînmes vous fûtes mourûtes vîntes ils furent moururent vinrent Source: http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/passesimple.htm irregular:
