The Past Historic in French

The Passé Simple in French

The passé simple(past historic) is often called a literary tense because it's reserved for written French. It’s becoming much less common in contemporary French literature, but you will inevitably encounter it if you read nineteenth-century authors such as Honoré de Balzac and Émile Zola, or twentieth-century authors like Marcel Proust and Simone de Beauvoir. You may also find it in historical documents. Because the passé simple is a rather old-fashioned literary tense, it's a bit unlikely that you'll need to produce it yourself, but you should be able to recognize it and understand its uses, as you're sure to come across it in literature.

The Passé Simple Is Used for Completed Actions

The passé simple is a past tense used to talk about an action that was completed in the past. It's often used to talk about a past event that is distant or historical.

The English equivalent of the passé simple is the simple past, as you can see in the last three examples above.

Recognizing Verbs in the Passé Simple in French

Regular verbs in the passé simple follow two different patterns:

• -er verbs follow one pattern
• -ir and -re verbs follow another pattern.

We'll take a look at these two regular patterns, as well as irregular verbs.

Regular -ER Verbs in the Passé Simple

For regular verbs in the passé simple, the infinitive ending is removed (in this case, the -er) and replaced with the following endings:

Regular Endings for -ER Verbs in the Passé Simple

Let's take a look at what some -er verbs look like in the passé simple. The table below shows the conjugations for donner(to give), essayer(to try), and parler(to speak):

Donner, Essayer, and Parler in the Passé Simple

Regular -IR and -RE Verbs in the Passé Simple

For regular -ir and -re verbs, the infinitive ending is removed and replaced with the following endings:

Regular Endings for -IR and -RE Verbs in the Passé Simple

Here's what an -ir verb like choisir(to choose) and an -re verb like attendre(to wait) look like in the passé simple:

Choisir and Attendre in the Passé Simple

Irregular -IR and -RE Verbs

Some -ir and -re verbs are irregular in the passé simple. This means you can't simply remove the final -ir or -re of the infinitive and replace it with the regular endings given in the section above. Irregular verbs have a stem that ends in either an -i-, a -u-, or more rarely, an -in-. No matter the stem ending, the following endings are applied:

Endings for Irregular -IR and -RE Verbs in the Passé Simple

Let's first take a look at some verbs that have a stem ending in an -i-:

Irregular Verbs with Stems Ending in an I in the Passé Simple

After we add the appropriate endings, here's what the verbs dire, faire, and prendre look like in the passé simple:

Dire, Faire, and Prendre in the Passé Simple

Next, we'll take a look at some verbs that have a stem ending in a -u-:

Irregular Verbs with Stems Ending in a U in the Passé Simple

The frequently-used verbs être and avoir have stems ending in a -u-. You'll want to be familiar with what these verbs look like in the passé simple.

Être and Avoir in the Passé Simple

Finally, let's take a look at the conjugations for the irregular verbs tenir(to hold) and venir(to come), which have stems ending in -in-:

Tenir and Venir in the Passé Simple