The Passé Simple
The passé simple is a literary tense that is used to describe events that occured at a specific time in the past. It is not used in speaking or informal writing. It is only used in formal writing such as literature, history, etc. Today there is a growing trend to use the passé composé where the passé simple would once have been used.
The passé simple is used to talk about events that occured at a specific time in the past. It can be used to describe events that had some duration, if the duration is narrowly defined. Examples:
He brushed his teeth that night before going to bed.
Il brossa les dents cette nuit avant de se coucher.
We waited for her for two weeks.
Nous l'attendâmes deux semaines.
They went to the store to buy some bread.
Ils allèrent au marché pour acheter du pain.
To find out how to form the passé simple for regular verbs, click here. Many irregular verbs have irregular stems and some use irregular endings. However, the irregular verb aller forms the passé simple like a regular -er verb.
Verbs
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Created 25.5.05