Passé Simple of Regular Verbs
Unlike English, there is a literary past tense, used when writing formally. This past tense is the passé simple. It is relatively simple to predict when to use this tense: for every occurrence of the passé composé in conversational French, one simply uses the passé simple in literary French. Note that the passé simple is not a composed tense, and therefore does not have an auxiliary verb like the passé composé does.
Formation
To conjugate in this tense, one finds the stem and appends the following, as according to the table:
French Grammar • History The Simple Past  Le passé simple | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Subject | Ending | Conjugated Verb | English |
| Je | -ai | Je dansai. | I danced. |
| Tu | -as | Tu dansas. | You danced. |
| Il | -a | Il dansa. | He danced. |
| Nous | -âmes | Nous dansâmes. | We danced |
| Vous | -âtes | Vous dansâtes. | You danced. |
| Ils | -èrent | Ils dansèrent. | They danced. |
Regular Normally-Irregular Verbs
The following verbs are irregular in the present indicative, but are regular in their passé simple stems.
| Infinitive | Stem | Je… |
|---|---|---|
| -ir verbs | ||
| dormir | dorm | dormis |
| partir | part | partis |
| sentir | sent | sentis |
| servir | serv | servis |
| sortir | sort | sortis |
| -rir Verbs | ||
| couvrir | couvr | couvris |
| découvrir | découvr | découvris |
| offrir | offr | offris |
| ouvrir | ouvr | ouvris |
| souffrir | souffr | souffris |
| -re Verbs | ||
| combattre | combatt | combattis |
| rompre | romp | rompis |
| suivre | suiv | suivis |
Exercises
Complétez les phrases suivantes en conjuguant les verbes au passé simple:
1. J’_____ (entrer) dans le tour.
2. Tout d’un coup, mon ami ____ (tomber).
3. Nous _________ (monter) l’éscalier.
4. Je _____ (dire) aux professeurs qu’il _______ (regarder) la télé.
5. Ils t’_______ (offrir) le plat, et tu le _______ (laisser) tomber.