B2 · The past
Passé simple: reading the narrative tense
Nobody speaks it, but you have to be able to read it.
At a glance
- Remember
- The passé simple is read, the passé composé is spoken.
- When
- Before the past
- The past
- Past linked to the present
- The present
- The future
- Completed in the future
The past — Something that happened, finished, and stays where it happened.
- Form
- je parlaiI spoke
- Signal words
- soudain
- alors
- ce jour-là
- il était une fois
- Trap
- Wrong:Ils parlarent toute la nuit.Right:Ils parlèrent toute la nuit.
Your turn
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The form
How the forms are built
Each row gives the meaning first, then the form in French. The colours show what changes from one form to the next.
stem (regular) stem (irregular) tense marker person ending
| I spoke | je parlai |
| you spoke | tu parlas |
| he, she spoke | il, elle parla |
| we spoke | nous parlâmes |
| you spoke (plural, polite) | vous parlâtes |
| they spoke | ils, elles parlèrent |
| I was | je fus |
| you were | tu fus |
| he, she was | il, elle fut |
| we were | nous fûmes |
| you were (plural, polite) | vous fûtes |
| they were | ils, elles furent |
| he had (avoir) | il eut |
| he did, he made (faire) | il fit |
| he came (venir) | il vint |
| he took (prendre) | il prit |
| he saw (voir) | il vit |
| he could (pouvoir) | il put |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is aboutThe word that calls for it
Verbs in -er: -a in the singular, -èrent in the plural.
Elle regarda par la fenêtre.She looked out of the window.
Most other verbs end in -it or -ut.
Il prit son manteau et sortit.He took his coat and went out.
être, avoir, faire and venir have forms of their own.
Ce fut une longue nuit.It was a long night.
The background is still given by the imparfait.
Il faisait nuit quand ils arrivèrent.It was dark when they arrived.
Example sentences
Il était une fois un roi qui eut trois filles.Once upon a time there was a king who had three daughters.
Ils vécurent heureux pendant de longues années.They lived happily for many years.
La guerre éclata en 1914.The war broke out in 1914.
Elle fit un signe, et tout le monde se tut.She made a sign, and everyone fell silent.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
From il parla it is easy to derive ils parlarent — no such form exists. The third person plural of -er verbs ends in -èrent, with an accent: ils parlèrent, ils arrivèrent. And as for use: because «I spoke» is perfectly ordinary English, English speakers are the likeliest to carry the passé simple into conversation. Telling someone about yesterday takes the passé composé.
The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
The passé simple is the narrative tense of written French: novels, fairy tales, history books, accounts of the distant past. It does not occur in conversation, where the passé composé does the job. You will rarely have to form it yourself — but you have to recognise it the moment you open a book.
This is the one place where the English simple past is a misleading guide. «He spoke» is everyday English; il parla is not everyday French. The French tense has the same meaning as «he spoke» and a quite different register: in speech it sounds like someone reading aloud.
It shares the work with the imparfait exactly as the passé composé does: the imparfait paints the background, the passé simple tells the events. Il pleuvait. Soudain, la porte s’ouvrit.
Almost only the third person is read. Verbs in -er end in -a and -èrent: il parla, ils parlèrent. Most others end in -it or -ut: il finit, il prit, il dit, il put, il voulut. A few common forms are hard to recognise and are best learnt like vocabulary: il fut(être)il eut(avoir)il fit(faire)il vint(venir)il vit(voir) Watch il finit and il dit: they look exactly like the present, and only the context decides.
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