French Language > Verbs

Simple Past

---

I. Principles of Formation

The complete form will be made up of a Base, a Typical (or Tense) Vowel, and the Personal Ending.

Base

For regular -er, -ir, and –re verbs, the Base is the Present Stem (= the infinitive minus the infinitive ending). About the Base for irregular verbs, see IV below.

Typical Vowel

For regular –er verbs, it is –a-; for regular –ir and –re verbs, is is –i-. For irregular verbs, it is either –i– or –u-; see IV.

Personal Endings

The personal endings of the simple past for most verbs (regular –ir and –re, and all irregulars [except aller]) are these:

-s, -s, -t, -^mes, -^tes, -rent (pronounced: [-, -, -, m, t, r])

Note that the singular endings are not pronounced, while the plural endings consist in a single consonant sound.

–er verbs (plus aller) have slightly different singular endings:

-i, -s, -Ø ¹

---

II. Simple Past of Regular –ir and -re Verbs

The Base, for a –ir or –re verb, is the same as the Present Stem. E.g., for finir, > finir > fin-. For rendre, > rendre > rend-.

The Typical Vowel for the simple past of these verbs is: -i-

The Typical Vowel i and Personal Endings combined give:

-Is	-Îmes		[im]
-Is	-Îtes		[it]
-It	-Irent		[ir]

Joined to the bases fin– and rend–, these give:

finis	rendis
finis	rendis
finit	rendit
finîmes	rendîmes
finîtes	rendîtes
finirent	rendirent

Watch out! The singular forms for the present and simple past of an –ir verb are identical.

Present	Simple Past
finis	finis
finis	finis
finit	finit

---

III. Simple Past of Regular -er Verbs (and aller)

The Base of a regular –er verb is the Present Stem. E.g., for penser, penser > pens-. ²

The Typical Vowel (–a–) with the Personal Endings added (-i, -s, -Ø, ¹ -^mes, -^tes, -rent) gives:

Looks Like		Sounds Like
-Ai	-Âmes	[e]	[ɑm]
-As	-Âtes	[a]	[ɑt]
-A	-Èrent	[a]	[ɛr]

(Observe that the Typical Vowel -a- changes to a -è- in the 3rd person plural.)

Joined to the present stem pens– the above forms produce:

pensai	pensâmes
pensas	pensâtes
pensa	pensèrent

Do not confuse the simple past of an –er verb with its future:

Simple Past	Future
pensai	penserai
pensas	penseras
pensa	pensera
pensâmes	penserons
pensâtes	penserez
pensèrent	penseront

---

IV. Simple Past of Irregular Verbs

The Personal Endings are the usual: -s, -s, -t, -^mes, -^tes, -rent.

The Typical Vowel is either a –u– or an –i– (with a little interpretation in some cases).

The Base for the simple past of these verbs most often is not the present stem. Two cases arise:

A. When the Simple Past Resembles the Past Participle

Many irregulars have a simple past that looks like the past participle with personal endings slapped on.

• avoir: Past participle eu. Simple past: eus, eus, eut, eûmes, eûtes, eurent
  • (analysis: e + u  + PE, or: Ø ¹ + eu  + PE)
• vouloir: Past participle: voulu. Simple past: voulus, voulus, voulut, voulûmes, voulûtes, voulurent
  • (analysis: voul + u + PE)
• dire. Past participle: dit. Simple past: dis, dis, dit, etc.
  • (analysis: d + i  + PE)
• devoir. Past participle: dû. Simple Past: dus, dus, dut, etc.
  • (analysis: d + u  + PE)
• croire (to believe) & croître (to grow). Past participles: cru & crû.  Simple pasts:
  • (croire:) crus, crus, crut,crûmes, crûtes, crurent (analysis: cr + u + PE)
  • (croître:) crûs, crûs, crût, crûmes, crûtes, crûrent (analysis: cr + û + PE)
• recevoir (to receive). Past participle: reçu. Simple Past: reçus, reçus, reçut, etc.
  • (analysis: reç + u + PE)
• vivre. Past participle: vécu. Simple past: vécus, vécus, vécut, etc.
  • (analysis: véc + u + PE)

B. When the Simple Past DOESN’T Resemble the Past Participle

But other irregulars have a simple past that can’t be predicted from the past participle. You should learn these.

• Verbs Ending in –uire (traduire, construire, etc.)
  • E.g., construire. Past participle: construit. But simple past: construisis, etc. (analysis: construis  + i + PE)
• Verbs Ending in –Vindre (craindre, feindre, poindre, etc.)
  • E.g., joindre. Past Participle: joint. But simple past: joignis, etc. (analysis: joign + i + PE)
• Verbs like ouvrir
  • E.g., offrir. Past participle: offert. But simple past: offris, etc. (analysis: offr  + i + PE)
• Être
  • Past participle: été. But simple past: fus, fus, fut, etc. (analysis: f + u + PE)
• Faire
  • Past Participle: fait. But simple past: fis, etc. (analysis: f  + i + PE)
• Mourir
  • Past participle: mort. But simple past: mourus, etc. (analysis: mour  + u + PE)
• Naître
  • Past participle: né. But simple past: naquis, etc. (analysis: naqu  + i + PE)
• Tenir, venir
  • Past participle: tenu. But simple past: tins, tins, tint, tînmes, tîntes, tinrent (analysis: t  + in [ɛ̃] + PE)
• Voir
  • Past participle: vu. But simple past: vis, etc. Don’t confuse with present of vivre.  (analysis: v  + i  + PE)

1. Ø = nothing, nada, null[↩][↩][↩]
2. The base for aller is all-.[↩]

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.