Francisez | Learn to conjugate -RE verbs in the simple past tense of the indicative

Learn to conjugate -RE verbs in the simple past tense of the indicative

Le passé simple (littéraire) de l'indicatif

When to use

The indicative simple past tense in French is a literary tense that is used to express actions that happened in the past and that have been completed. The simple past is a 'perfect' tense, meaning 'completed', where as the imperfect tense is a past tense that is incomplete. The simple past tense is the literary equivalent of the passé composé. Read Notable points for more. Its English equivalents are as follows:

Perfect tense
The tense that is composed with the '-ed' ending when writing.

Eg. The dutchess yelled from the window.
Present perfect tense
The tense that is composed as to have plus the past participle of the verb when writing.

Eg. He has gone to the shoemaker.
Emphatic past tense
The tense that is composed as did plus the plain form of the verb (the infinitive minus the 'to') when writing.

Eg. Although, they did like the tailoring.

Examples of use

Eg. 1)

J'attendis mes amis.

I waited for my friends.

Eg. 2)

Elle répondit à un courriel.

She replied to an e-mail.

Eg. 3)

Ils vendirent des bananes et fraises.

They sold bananas and strawberries.

How to conjugate

Drop the final 're' of the infinitive of the verb and add the following endings. The infinitive of the verb is plain form of the verb that is found in a dictionary.

Je	-is	I
Tu	-is	you (s.)
Il	-it	he, she, it
Nous	-îmes	we
Vous	-îtes	you (p., pol.)
Ils	-irent	they

Examples of conjugation

attendre to wait (for)
J'	attendis
Tu	attendis
Il	attendit
Nous	attendîmes
Vous	attendîtes
Ils	attendirent

répondre to respond, to reply
Je	répondis
Tu	répondis
Il	répondit
Nous	répondîmes
Vous	répondîtes
Ils	répondirent

vendre to sell
Je	vendis
Tu	vendis
Il	vendit
Nous	vendîmes
Vous	vendîtes
Ils	vendirent

Test your skills in the 'Conjugation game' with DELF A1 verbs!

Notable points

Literary tenses

There are 5 literary tenses in French which all have spoken equivalents and the indicative past is one of them. It is also important to note that written tenses are used in literature, journalism, historical texts and narration. The following is a table of literary and spoken equivalents:

Literary	Spoken
IND. simple past	IND passé composé
IND. past perfect	IND. plus-que-parfait
SUBJ. imperfect*	SUBJ. present
SUBJ. plus-que-parfait**	SUBJ. past
COND. 2^nd past	COND. past

* The subjunctive imperfect tense is only the literary form when main clause is in the past tense and the subjunctive clause, the subordinate, didn't happen first.
** The subjunctive plus-que-parfait tense is only the literary form when the main clause is in the past tense and the subjunctive clause happened before the main clause.

Imperfect tense confusion
Do not confuse this tense with the imperfect tense. The simple past tense is used when the action was either completed quickly or was completed in general. This differs to the imperfect tense which is used when the action happened over a long period of time in comparison to now or cannot be finished now.

Other groups

-ER

-IR

-RE

Other moods and tenses

Participles	Present Past
Indicative	Present Imperfect Simple Future Simple Past Passé composé Plus-que-parfait Past Perfect Future Perfect	-ER -IR -RE -ER -IR -RE
Subjunctive	Present Imperfect Plus-que-parfait Past
Conditional	Present Past Past (2^nd)
Imperative	Present Past

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