Formation of the Simple Past
The simple past of regular verbs is formed by dropping the infinitive ending and adding the respective personal endings:
For all -er verbs:
-ai, -as, -a, -âmes, -âtes, -èrent
For regular -ir and -re verbs:
-is, -is, -it, -îmes, -îtes, -irent.
| parler (to speak) | finir (to finish) | perdre (to lose) |
| je parlai | finis | perdis |
| tu parlas | finis | perdis |
| il/elle parla | Il finit | perdit |
| nous parlâmes | finîmes | perdîmes |
| vous parlâtes | finîtes | perdîtes |
| ils/elles parlèrent | finirent | perdirent |
Notes:
Verbs ending in -cer change c to ç before a to keep the soft c sound.
Verbs ending in -ger insert a mute e between g and a to keep the soft g sound.
Meanings of the Simple Past
The simple past (sometimes referred to as past historic) is used to indicate that an isolated event took place at a given time in the past. The duration of this event may have been brief or lasted a long time, however, it is the occurrence of the event that is important, not the duration. It is the ideal tense for biographies and reports of past events.
Napoléon naquit en Corse mais il vécut en
France.
(Napoleon was born in Corsica, however, he lived in France.)
Toulouse-Lautrec vendit des affiches de
music-hall.
(Toulouse-Lautrec sold music-hall posters.)
The past historic is seldom used in spoken French and has been replaced with the perfect (passé composé). However, its use is still recommended in good written style.
See Also: