The passé simple is the simple past form of a French verb. Unlike its English equivalent, the passé simple is used only in formal prose. Chances are you won’t ever need to use the passé simple in your own writing. However, you will need to be able to recognize the passé simple when you see it if you want to read French literature.

 

Passé Simple Conjugations

The passé simple form is conjugated by dropping the infinitive ending of a verb and replacing it with the appropriate passé simple ending. Regular –ER verbs take their own set of endings. Regular –IR and ­–RE verbs share a set of endings.

 

ER Endings

Pronoun	Passé Simple Ending	Parler (to speak)
je	-ai	parlerai
tu	-as	parleras
il, elle, on	-a	parla
nous	-âmes	parlâmes
vous	-âtes	parlâtes
ils, ells	-èrent	parlèrent

IR and RE Endings

Pronoun	Passé Simple Ending	Finir (to finish)	Rendre (to return)
je	-is	finis	rendis
tu	-is	finis	rendis
il, elle, on	-a	finit	rendit
nous	-îmes	finîmes	rendîmes
vous	-îtes	finîtes	rendîtes
ils, ells	-irent	finirent	rendirent

 

Exceptions: Because you will rarely (if ever) have to conjugate the passé simple yourself, we’re not going to cover all of the exceptions in detail. That having been said, here are two notable ones to look out for.

First, French spelling change verbs keep their spelling changes in most (but not all) conjugations. –CER and –GER spelling change – ER verbs, for example, drop their spelling changes in the ils form. (We’ll cover French spelling change and stem-changing verbs in future lessons.)

Second, most irregular verbs with a past participle form ending u take that form as their verb stems. These, in turn, take the following endings: -s (je and tu), -t (il), -^mes (nous), -^tes (vous) and –rent (ils). A handful of verbs with irregular stems do not follow these rules, instead taking regular verb endings in their passé simple forms.