passé simple (literary tense)

The passé simple is a past tense reserved primarily for written discourse. It may, however, be used in very formal spoken language, such as presidential addresses, sermons, or news broadcasting. It has traditionally been used only for events completed in the distant, historical past; however, twentieth century writers sometimes use it for stylistic effect.

The passé simple will generally be translated into English by a preterit, that is, the simple past: ‘I talked‘. But like the passé composé, the passé simple is used in French only to mention changes and events, while the imparfait remains the tense used for describing the setting, the atmosphere, an ongoing state of mind, or the general situation.

regular infinitives ending in -er, -ir & -re

For all regular -er, -ir, and -re verbs, the passé simple is formed by dropping the infinitive ending, the final two letters of the infinitive, and replacing them with the the following endings. There is no auxiliary and this is the reason why it is called a ‘simple’ tense: it is a one-word tense (unlike the two-word passé composé). Many verbs, such as aller, sortir, and suivre, which are irregular in the present indicative follow the paradigm of regular verbs in their passé simple forms.

irregular verbs: avoir, être, faire

These verbs are irregular in the passé simple.

other irregular verbs

There are two sets of endings for the passé simple of irregular verbs

Irregular verbs generally have irregular stems for the passé simple. In some cases, the stems are the same as the past participle of the verb. Stems of a few other verbs, marked with an *, are completely irregular (such as naître, mourir, voir). The endings are regular, however, except for venir and tenir which have irregular plural forms.

See the conjugation reference for the conjugation of other irregular verbs in the passé simple.