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      • The French Passé Simple

      The French Passé Simple

      • Date August 10, 2015

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      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.

       

      Tag:French, French Verb, Passe Simple Conjugations, The French Passe Simple

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      Translation Troubles
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      Participe Passé: The French Past Participle
      August 13, 2015

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