The simple past indicative or
passé simple de l'indicatif in french, is a
simple tense. This tense is not formed with an auxiliary.
The stem of the past historic tense is not always regular but is always invariant for a single verb.
There are four sets of endings for this tense:
- Past historic in -a-: -ai, -as, -a, -âmes, -âtes, -èrent for the first group and verb aller, pronounced /e, a, a, ɑm, ɑt, ɛʀ/.
- Past historic in -i-: -is, -is, -it, -îmes, -îtes, -irent for the second and third groups, pronounced /i, i, i, im, it, iʀ/.
- Past historic in -u-: -us, -us, -ut, -ûmes, -ûtes, -urent for the third group, pronounced /y, y, y, ym, yt, yʀ/.
- Past historic in -in-: -ins, -ins, -int, -înmes, -întes, -inrent for the third group, verbs: venir, tenir and similar verbs (survenir, maintenir...), pronounced /ɛ̃, ɛ̃, ɛ̃, ɛ̃m, ɛ̃t, ɛ̃ʀ/.
Simple past indicative endings
The are four sets of endings in simple past indicative. Here are the complete endings for the three groups :
