French Simple Past

In French the simple past is usually only used in formal speeches and writing. For other situations, it is common to use the present perfect. This is different from English. The sentence I visited my sister is J'ai visité ma soeur. In formal French, however, it can be translated as Je visitai ma soeur.

The conjugation of the simple past has two regular patterns. One is for infinitives which end in -er and the other for infinitives which end in -ir and -re. Here are examples with the three infinitive endings:

parler (to speak)

je parlai (I spoke)
tu parlas (you spoke)
il/elle parla (he/she spoke)
nous parlâmes (we spoke)
vous parlâtes (you spoke)
ils/elles parlèrent (they spoke)

finir (to finish)

je finis (I finished)
tu finis (you finished)
il/elle finit (he/she finished)
nous finîmes (we finished)
vous finîtes (you finished)
ils/elles finirent (they finished)

perdre (to lose)

je perdis (I lost)
tu perdis (you lost)
il/elle perdit (he/she lost)
nous perdîmes (we lost)
vous perdîtes (you lost)
ils/elles perdirent (they lost)

The verbs être (to be) and avoir (to have) are irregular. Here are the conjugations:

être (to be)

je fus (I was)
tu fus (you were)
il/elle fut (he/she was)
nous fûmes (we were)
vous fûtes (you were)
ils/elles furent (they were)

avoir (to have)

j'eus (I had)
tu eus (you had)
il/elle eut (he/she had)
nous eûmes (we had)
vous eûtes (you had)
ils/elles eurent (they had)

In conversational French the present perfect is used instead of the simple past. However, the simple past is common in formal speeches and writing. The simple past has two regular conjugation patterns. One is for infinitives which end in -er and the other for infinitives which end in -ir and -re.