Past tenses in French

   

Expressing past time in French

 The preterite and perfect tenses

There are four indicative past tenses in French, plus less common subjunctive forms. This page is concerned with the usage of the different forms of past tenses in French.
   
The rules governing the use of past tenses are rather different from the rules for using past tenses in English.  For instance, the distinction between I ate and I have eaten, is not at all the same as the distinction between je mangeai and j'ai mangé.

Jump to part 2 for the imperfect (imparfait) and past perfect (plusqueparfait or passé antérieur) tenses. 

1.  The preterite, or past historic  - le préterite ou passé simple

This is the classic literary and formal narrative  past tense, used for describing events in the past. It corresponds to the preterite or simple past tense in English.

► It is particularly used for third-person narrative.
► Except in some fixed expressions, it has more or less fallen out of use in first person / second person conversational French.
► The first and second person plural forms are now considered archaic, and virtually never used, not even in formal written French.

The preterite tense forms of key French verbs

Verb	Preterite or simple past tense
être	je fus, tu fus, il fut, nous fûmes, vous fûtes, ils furent,
avoir	j'eus, tu eus, il eut, nous eûmes, vous eûtes, ils eurent,
pouvoir	je pus, tu pus, il put, nous pûmes, vous pûtes, ils purent,
vouloir	je voulus, tu voulus, il voulut, nous voulûmes, vous voulûtes, ils voulurent,
devoir	je dus, tu dus, il dut, nous dûmes, vous dûtes, ils durent,
porter (regular verbs in -er)	Je portai, tu portas, il porta, nous portâmes, vous portâtes, ils portèrent
finir (regular verbs in - ir)	je finis, tu finis, il finit, nous finîmes, vous finîtes, ils finirent
vendre (regular verbs in -re)	je vendis, tu vendis, il vendit, nous vendîmes, vous vendîtes, ils vendirent.
aller	j'allai, tu allas, il alla, nous allâmes, ous allâtes  ils allèrent
boire	je bus, tu bus, il but, nous bûmes, vous bûtes ils burent
savoir	je sus, tu sus, il sut, nous sûmes, vous sûtes, ils sûrent
venir	je vins tu vins il vint, nous vinmes, vous vintes, ils vinrent
voir	je vis, tu vis, il vit, nous vîmes, vous vîtes, ils virent

2.  The "perfect tense"  or composite past - Le temps parfait ou passé composé

This is the tense which is most commonly used for describing events in the past in modern less formal written French, and in modern spoken French. It corresponds to either the preterite or the present perfect tense in English.

► It is particularly used in conversational or oral narrrative.
► It is less used in formal narrative.
► It is formed using the auxiliary "avoir" (or for some verbs "être" - see below ), and the past participle.


► Special cases: Perfect tense with "être"
With common verbs of movement, the perfect tense is conjugated with the auxiliary "être", not "avoir".
These verbs are : aller, venir, monter, descendre, entrer, sortir, arriver, partir, rester, tomber, naître, mourir (and devenir, rentrer, remonter, repartir etc.) except when these verbs are used transitively, i.e.with an object.

The perfect tense is also formed with the auxiliary "être" with all reflexive verbs.

► Agreement of the past participle

There are two different situations, depending on whether the perfect tense is formed with avoir or with être.

a) For verbs conjugated with avoir, i.e. most verbs, the past participle agrees in number and gender with a direct object if this comes before the participle.
► Note the particular case of relative clauses, where the object pronoun que assumes the properties of number and gender of the noun that it refers to.

b) When a verb is conjugated with être, the past participle always agrees in number and gender with the subject.