Le Passé Simple The Past Historic

Uses of the past historic: It is the ‘passé simple’ because it is one word and not a compound (i.e. the perfect tense). It is used only in formal writing such as literature, newspaper reports, formal articles and the like. It is never used in speech, unless someone is reading aloud from a text.

Examples Les représentants de la ville jumelle plantèrent un arbre et leur président prononça un petit discours en français. The representatives from the twin town planted a tree and their chairman gave a little speech in French. La seconde guerre mondiale éclata en 1939 quand les Allemands envahirent la Pologne. World War 2 broke out in 1939, when the Germans invaded Poland.

Furthermore … The tense can also be used to sum up a longer period of time, looked at as a completed whole: Les années de la guerre furent dures pour la France occupée. L’occupation dura cinq ans. The war years were hard for occupied France. The occupation lasted for five years. (We often translate ‘was/were’ with the imperfect tense to describe continual actions ins the past.)

Attention! Although the past historic can describe more lengths of time, we must remember how to use the imperfect tense. This is the cases when translating phrases such as ‘When Monet lived in Normandy, he spent a lot of time creating his garden.’ This is clearly descriptive and requires the imperfect, E.g. Quand Monet habitait en Normandie, il passait beaucoup de temps à créer son jardin.

Formation – Regular Verbs To form the past historic of regular verbs, remove the endings in all cases and add: Donner – ‘gave’ Remplir – ‘filled’ Vendre – ‘sold’ Je donnai Tu donnas Il/Elle donna Nous donnâmes Vous donnâtes Ils/Elles donnèrent Je remplis Tu remplis Il/Elle remplit Nous remplîmes Vous remplîtes Ils/Elles remplirent Je vendis Tu vendis Il/Elle vendit Nous vendîmes Vous vendîtes Ils/Elles vendirent

Regular Verbs - Exceptions All –er verbs are regular, even aller! However, you need to be careful of –cer and –ger verbs. -cer Add a cedilla before the ‘a’ to soften the sound: Il commença, nous commençâmes but ils commencèrent -ger Keep the ‘e’ after the g to soften the sound: Je mangeai, vous mangeâtes but elles mangèrent

Formation – Irregular ‘I’ group Most verbs follow regular patters. However some do not, as they have an irregular stem. A list of irregular stems has been circulated and these are the endings: Faire Je fis Tu fis Il/Elle fit Nous fîmes Vous fîtes Ils/Elles firent

Formation – Irregular ‘U’ group Most verbs follow regular patters. However some do not, as they have an irregular stem. A list of irregular stems has been circulated and these are the endings: Boire Je bus Tu bus Il/Elle but Nous bûmes Vous bûtes Ils/Elles burent

… and finally! Tenir – ‘held’ Venir – ‘came’ Je tins Tu tins ‘Venir’ and ‘Tenir’ (and their compounds) have a slightly different pattern than all of the other verbs: Tenir – ‘held’ Venir – ‘came’ Je tins Tu tins Il/Elle tint Nous tînmes Vous tîntes Ils/Elles tinrent Je vins Tu vins Il/Elle vint Nous vînmes Vous vîntes Ils/Elles vinrent

Les réponses – Exercice 1 Naquit Eut Arrêta Commença Travailla Connut Allèrent Purent Revinrent Vendirent mourut

Les réponses – Exercice 2 Frappa Se leva Ouvrit Eus Sortit Referma Bougea Me levai Revint Ferma Fouilla Resta repris Se leva Embrassa Tendit Nous retrouvâmes Ouvris S’avança