{"id":32379,"date":"2020-10-09T19:28:56","date_gmt":"2020-10-09T17:28:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=32379"},"modified":"2021-03-18T21:37:57","modified_gmt":"2021-03-18T20:37:57","slug":"passe-simple-french-simple-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/passe-simple-french-simple-past\/","title":{"rendered":"Pass\u00e9 Simple – French Simple Past"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bonjour!\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

A couple weeks ago I shared with you un\u00a0conte de f\u00e9e:\u00a0<\/em>Le Petit Chaperon Rouge, <\/em>Little Red Riding Hood. I am sure it was easy enough to understand since the story is already widely known, but you may have noticed something odd while reading. Throughout the story you would have seen a different kind of grammatical tense, and that is l<\/em>e pass\u00e9 simple, <\/i>the simple past.<\/p>\n

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Photo from Pixabay, CCO.<\/p><\/div>\n

Let’s look at it again from this short excerpt from the story:<\/p>\n

“Ne t’inqui\u00e8te pas”, dit-elle,\u00a0“je courrai jusque chez Grand’m\u00e8re sans m’arr\u00eater.”\u00a0Petit Chaperon Rouge embrassa<\/strong> sa maman et s’en alla<\/strong>. La petite fille commen\u00e7a<\/strong> son long voyage a travers la for\u00eat.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Don’t worry”,\u00a0she said. “I will run to Grandma’s without stopping.” Little Red Riding Hood kissed<\/strong> her mother and left.<\/strong> The little girl started<\/strong> her long trip through the forest.<\/p>\n

When learning the past tense in French you almost certainly first learned le<\/em> pass\u00e9 compos\u00e9,\u00a0<\/i>which is a compound tense. As you know, with le<\/em> pass\u00e9 compos\u00e9\u00a0<\/i>you first need un verbe auxiliaire<\/em> (auxiliary verb) – either avoir<\/em> or \u00eatre, <\/em>and then you need l<\/em>e participe pass\u00e9 (past participle).<\/i><\/p>\n

So then why aren’t the above verbs conjugated in le<\/em> pass\u00e9 compos\u00e9 <\/i>as such: …\u00a0<\/i>a embrass\u00e9<\/strong> … <\/i>est\u00a0<\/strong>partie<\/i><\/b>\u00a0… <\/i>a commenc\u00e9<\/strong>?\u00a0<\/i>Well, if this wasn’t a literary text and instead an oral story or informal letter, it would read exactly like that.<\/p>\n

So l<\/em>e pass\u00e9 simple\u00a0<\/i>is instead a literary past-tense reserved for formal writing, even children’s stories. Unless you’d like to become a journalist or novelist in French, you most likely will never need to know how to form the l<\/em>e pass\u00e9 simple,\u00a0<\/i>but you will need to recognize it in text. So, let’s look at the rules:<\/p>\n

ER verbs\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Drop the ‘er’ and add the following endings:\u00a0ai, as, a, \u00e2mes, \u00e2tes, \u00e8rent<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Par example<\/em>:<\/p>\n

J’aidai \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Nous aid\u00e2mes<\/em><\/p>\n

Tu aidas \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Vous aid\u00e2tes<\/em><\/p>\n

Il\/Elle aida \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Ils\/Elles aid\u00e8rent<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

IR and RE verbs\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Drop the ‘ir’ or ‘re’ and add the following endings: is, is, it, \u00eemes, \u00eetes, irent.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Par example:\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Je finis \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Nous fin\u00eemes<\/em><\/p>\n

Tu finis \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Vous fin\u00eetes<\/em><\/p>\n

Il\/Elle finit \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Ils\/Elles finirent<\/em><\/p>\n

Irregular Verbs<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, there are irregular verbs even in the past simple. Generally these irregular verb stems will end in ‘i’ or ‘u’ and will add the following endings: s, s, t, ^mes, ^tes, rent<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Here are some irregular verb stems (notice how a lot of them are the past participle of the verb in the pass\u00e9 compos\u00e9<\/i>):<\/p>\n

avoir<\/em> (to have): eu-<\/em><\/p>\n

boire<\/em> (to drink): bu-<\/em><\/p>\n

conna\u00eetre<\/em> (to know): connu-<\/em><\/p>\n

construire<\/em> (to construct): construis-\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

courir<\/em> (to run): couru-<\/em><\/p>\n

craindre<\/em> (to fear): craigni-<\/em><\/p>\n

croire<\/em> (to believe): cru-<\/em><\/p>\n

devoir<\/em> (to have to): du-\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

dire<\/em> (to say): di-<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00e9crire<\/em> (to write): \u00e9crivi-<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00eatre<\/em> (to be): fu-<\/em><\/p>\n

faire<\/em> (to do): fi-<\/em><\/p>\n

lire<\/em> (to read): lu-<\/em><\/p>\n

mettre<\/em> (to put): mi-<\/em><\/p>\n

na\u00eetre<\/em> (to be born): naqui-\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

pouvoir<\/em> (to be able to): pu-\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

savoir<\/em> (to know): su-<\/em><\/p>\n

vivre<\/em> (to live): v\u00e9cu-\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

vouloir<\/em> (to want): voulu-\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Par example<\/i>\u00a0here is the pass\u00e9 simple<\/i> conjugation of \u00eatre<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Je fus \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Nous f\u00fbmes\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Tu fus \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Vous f\u00fbtes<\/em><\/p>\n

Il\/Elle fut \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Ils\/Elles furent\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Bonne lecture dans\u00a0le pass\u00e9 simple tout le monde!\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Bonjour!\u00a0 A couple weeks ago I shared with you un\u00a0conte de f\u00e9e:\u00a0Le Petit Chaperon Rouge, Little Red Riding Hood. I am sure it was easy enough to understand since the story is already widely known, but you may have noticed something odd while reading. Throughout the story you would have seen a different kind of…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":166,"featured_media":32390,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32379","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grammar"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t