French grammar · Advanced
Passé Simple Conjugations: Every Ending and Every Irregular Stem
The passé simple has three sets of endings and around thirty irregular stems, and that is the whole tense. There is no auxiliary, no participle, and no agreement, so once you have the stem the form is settled. The third person singular tells you which set you are in: -a, -it, or -ut.
Ils prirent la route à l'aube et ne s'arrêtèrent qu'au soir.
They set off at dawn and did not stop until evening.
What it is
Because the passé simple is a simple tense, everything lives inside one word. You need a stem and one of three ending sets, and there is nothing else to get right: no auxiliary to choose, no participle to agree. That makes it mechanically simpler than the passé composé, and the difficulty shifts entirely onto the irregular stems.
il donna, il partit, il voulut — he gave, he left, he wanted.
How to spot it
Two markers give the tense away. Every nous and vous form carries a circumflex, and every third person plural ends in -rent. No other French tense does either of those things.
- Nous vîmes la mer pour la première fois. — We saw the sea for the first time.
- Ils écrivirent une longue lettre. — They wrote a long letter.
- Elle sut immédiatement. — She knew immediately.
- Vous eûtes de la chance. — You were lucky.
-èrent, -irent, and -urent are the safest forms to identify from, because nothing else in the language ends that way.
Passé Simple Conjugations Quick Reference
Where the stem comes from, verb type by verb type
| Verb type | Stem source | Third person singular |
|---|---|---|
| -er verbs | infinitive minus -er | il donna |
| Regular -ir and -re verbs | infinitive minus the ending | il partit, il répondit |
| Participle in -u | the participle itself | il voulut, il connut, il lut |
| prendre, mettre | pri-, mi- | il prit, il mit |
| faire | fi- | il fit |
| être, avoir | fu-, eu- | il fut, il eut |
| venir, tenir | vin-, tin- | il vint, il tint |
| naître, mourir | naqu-, mouru- | il naquit, il mourut |
Common Passé Simple Conjugations Examples in French
The three ending groups, and the irregulars that sit outside them:
The -a Group: -er Verbs
- Il commença son discours.
- He began his speech.
- Nous mangeâmes en silence.
- We ate in silence.
- Elles se levèrent d'un bond.
- They leapt to their feet.
- Je restai immobile.
- I stayed still.
Aller belongs here in spite of being irregular almost everywhere else: il alla, ils allèrent.
The -it Group
- Il choisit la porte de gauche.
- He chose the left-hand door.
- Elle répondit sans lever les yeux.
- She answered without looking up.
- Nous partîmes avant l'aube.
- We left before dawn.
- Ils comprirent aussitôt.
- They understood at once.
Regular -ir and -re verbs live here, and so do faire, prendre, mettre, voir, and dire with shortened stems.
The -ut Group
- Il ne put rien dire.
- He could say nothing.
- Elle voulut protester.
- She wanted to protest.
- Nous crûmes à un accident.
- We thought it was an accident.
- Ils vécurent là dix ans.
- They lived there for ten years.
If the past participle ends in -u, the passé simple stem is that participle. Cru gives crûmes, vécu gives vécurent, reçu gives reçut.
The Irregular Handful
- Ce fut une longue journée.
- It was a long day.
- Il eut soudain très peur.
- He was suddenly very frightened.
- Elle vint sans prévenir.
- She came without warning.
- Il naquit un dimanche.
- He was born on a Sunday.
Fut, eut, vint, and fit are the four you meet most often, and not one of them can be guessed from its infinitive.
How to Build a Passé Simple Form
Find the group, find the stem, add the ending, and check the accent.
The Third Person Singular Names the Group
-a means you are in the -er group, -it in the group used by regular -ir and -re verbs, and -ut in the group most irregulars belong to. Get that one form right and the other five follow from it.
Il parla, il partit, il courut.
He spoke, he left, he ran.
-a, -it, -ut decide everything.
The Circumflex Is Not Optional
Every nous and vous form takes a circumflex on the vowel in front of the ending: parlâmes, partîmes, courûmes. It is the only accent in the tense and it never fails to appear.
Nous fûmes ravis de vous revoir.
We were delighted to see you again.
Circumflex on every nous and vous.
The Past Participle Usually Gives You the Stem
For the whole -ut group the stem is the past participle. Reçu gives reçut, lu gives lut, connu gives connut, dû gives dut. If you know the passé composé of a verb, you very often already know its passé simple.
Elle reçut la lettre et la lut.
She received the letter and read it.
Participle in -u → stem in -u.
-cer and -ger Verbs Keep Their Softener Before A
Four of the -er endings begin with a, so the cedilla of -cer verbs and the extra e of -ger verbs survive in those four forms. The -èrent ending has no a, so both drop out there.
Il s'avança et commença à parler.
He stepped forward and began to speak.
ç and ge survive in front of a.
Some Forms Collide with Other Tenses
Dire has the same third person singular in the present and the passé simple. Regular -ir verbs have the same je and tu forms in both. Nothing in the word itself resolves this, so the surrounding tenses have to.
Il dit oui, puis il sortit.
He said yes, then he went out.
il dit is present and passé simple alike.
Common Mistakes with Passé Simple Conjugations
Incorrect: Ils mangèrent et ils buvèrent. — They ate and they drank.
Correct: Ils mangèrent et ils burent. — They ate and they drank.
Boire is not an -er verb and cannot take -èrent. Its participle is bu, which puts it in the -us group: il but, ils burent.
Incorrect: Nous finimes le travail. — We finished the work.
Correct: Nous finîmes le travail. — We finished the work.
Every nous and vous form in the tense carries a circumflex. Without it the word simply does not exist, and there is no other reading available.
Incorrect: Il commenca son récit. — He began his account.
Correct: Il commença son récit. — He began his account.
Without the cedilla the c would be hard. The softener is required in front of a, which is why it shows up in four forms and disappears in commencèrent.
Incorrect: Elle vena me voir. — She came to see me.
Correct: Elle vint me voir. — She came to see me.
Venir does not take -er endings. It belongs to a two-verb group with tenir: je vins, il vint, ils vinrent, and the same for their compounds.
The Full Conjugation Tables
Four tables cover the tense: the -er group with its spelling changes, the -is group, the -us group, and the small set of verbs that belong to neither.
The -er group, including -cer and -ger
Chanter shows the plain pattern; manger keeps its e and commencer its cedilla in every form whose ending begins with a.
| Pronoun | chanter | manger | commencer |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j' | chantai | mangeai | commençai |
| tu | chantas | mangeas | commenças |
| il / elle / on | chanta | mangea | commença |
| nous | chantâmes | mangeâmes | commençâmes |
| vous | chantâtes | mangeâtes | commençâtes |
| ils / elles | chantèrent | mangèrent | commencèrent |
The last row is the exception in both columns, because -èrent contains no a for the softener to protect.
The -is group
Regular -ir and -re verbs keep their infinitive stem. Écrire and voir shorten to écriv- and v-, which have to be learned.
| Pronoun | dormir | répondre | écrire | voir |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| je / j' | dormis | répondis | écrivis | vis |
| tu | dormis | répondis | écrivis | vis |
| il / elle / on | dormit | répondit | écrivit | vit |
| nous | dormîmes | répondîmes | écrivîmes | vîmes |
| vous | dormîtes | répondîtes | écrivîtes | vîtes |
| ils / elles | dormirent | répondirent | écrivirent | virent |
Il vit is a genuine ambiguity: it is the passé simple of voir and the present of vivre. Only context separates them.
The -us group
All four stems here are simply the past participle: su, pu, dû, lu. This is the most reliable pattern in the whole tense.
| Pronoun | savoir | pouvoir | devoir | lire |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| je / j' | sus | pus | dus | lus |
| tu | sus | pus | dus | lus |
| il / elle / on | sut | put | dut | lut |
| nous | sûmes | pûmes | dûmes | lûmes |
| vous | sûtes | pûtes | dûtes | lûtes |
| ils / elles | surent | purent | durent | lurent |
Devoir loses the circumflex of its participle dû in the je and tu forms, because there is no article du to confuse them with.
The verbs that belong to no group
Venir and tenir share an -ins pattern found nowhere else. Naître and mourir have unpredictable stems that are worth memorising because biography and fiction use them constantly.
| Pronoun | venir | tenir | naître | mourir |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| je / j' | vins | tins | naquis | mourus |
| tu | vins | tins | naquis | mourus |
| il / elle / on | vint | tint | naquit | mourut |
| nous | vînmes | tînmes | naquîmes | mourûmes |
| vous | vîntes | tîntes | naquîtes | mourûtes |
| ils / elles | vinrent | tinrent | naquirent | moururent |
Compounds inherit the pattern: devenir gives il devint, obtenir gives il obtint, and revenir gives ils revinrent.
Spelling Traps and Look-Alike Forms
Most passé simple errors are not about the wrong stem but about an accent, a cedilla, or a form that belongs to another tense.
-cer and -ger verbs
The softeners that appear in front of a and o in the present tense come back here, because four of the six -er endings begin with a.
- Il lança la balle.
- He threw the ball.
- Nous nageâmes jusqu'à la bouée.
- We swam as far as the buoy.
- Elle effaça le tableau.
- She wiped the board.
- Ils avancèrent lentement.
- They advanced slowly.
Avancèrent needs no cedilla and mangèrent no extra e, because the -èrent ending begins with a vowel that already keeps c and g soft.
Forms that collide with other tenses
Several passé simple forms are spelled identically to a form from another tense. Nothing in the word resolves it, so the tense of the verbs around it has to.
- il dit
- he says / he said (present and passé simple)
- je finis
- I finish / I finished
- il parla
- he spoke (compare the future il parlera)
- nous rîmes
- we laughed (compare the present nous rions)
The -er singulars are the real risk in reading: il donna and il donnera are two letters and a whole tense apart.
The passé antérieur, built out of these forms
The compound partner of the passé simple uses avoir or être in the passé simple plus a participle. It is the main reason il eut and il fut are the most frequent forms of the tense.
- Quand il eut terminé, il rangea ses affaires.
- When he had finished, he put his things away.
- Dès qu'elles furent sorties, la salle se vida.
- As soon as they had gone out, the room emptied.
Note the agreement in furent sorties. Being compound, the passé antérieur obeys the same auxiliary and agreement rules as any other compound tense.
Passé Simple Conjugations FAQs
- What are the passé simple endings?
- There are three sets. -er verbs take -ai, -as, -a, -âmes, -âtes, -èrent. Regular -ir and -re verbs take -is, -is, -it, -îmes, -îtes, -irent. A large group of irregulars takes -us, -us, -ut, -ûmes, -ûtes, -urent.
- How do you find the passé simple stem of an irregular verb?
- Start from the past participle. If it ends in -u, that participle is the stem: voulu gives il voulut, reçu gives il reçut, connu gives il connut. Faire, prendre, mettre, être, avoir, venir, tenir, and naître have to be learned separately.
- Why do the nous and vous forms have a circumflex?
- It marks a vowel that used to be followed by an s, long since dropped. Practically speaking it is a reliable identifier: parlâmes, finîmes, and courûmes could not belong to any other tense, and leaving the accent off produces a non-word.
- Which passé simple forms look like other tenses?
- Il dit is both present and passé simple for dire, and je finis is both for finir. Il vit is the passé simple of voir and the present of vivre. The -er singulars are close to the future too: il donna against il donnera.
- Do -cer and -ger verbs change spelling in the passé simple?
- Yes, in every form whose ending starts with a. Commencer gives je commençai and nous commençâmes; manger gives il mangea and vous mangeâtes. The third person plural in -èrent drops both, giving commencèrent and mangèrent.