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There are two main past tenses in ordinary French: the passé composé (compound past) and the imparfait (imperfect).

The passé composé is used for narration of past events that occurred at a particular point in time. It is formed with two words--the present tense of the verb avoir (or, for some verbs, être), followed by the past participle (le participe passé) of the verb. For example:

J'ai acheté ce que vous m'avez vendu. -> I bought what you sold me.

Tu es rentré chez toi. -> You went home.

(Be aware that there are also other subtleties of forming this tense, such as the complex matter of agreement of the past participle, which I won't explain here.)

The imparfait is used for ongoing events that began in the past or for past habitual events, or for telling of past states of being rather than events. It is formed by taking the stem of the present "nous" form and adding the endings -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient. For example:

Chaque matin je me réveillais tôt. -> I woke up early each morning.

Qu'est-ce que vous disiez ? -> What were you saying?

There is also a past verb tense called the passé simple ("simple past" or "past historic") that is only used in writing. For -er verbs, it is formed by taking off the -er and adding -ai, -as, -a, -âmes, -âtes, -èrent. For other verbs, you take the stem (very often similar to the past participle, but there are many exceptions) and add -s, -s, -t, -^mes, -^tes, rent. (^ represents a circumflex over the last vowel in the stem) For example:

Elle entendit tout ce que nous dîmes. -> She heard everything we said.

"Le Jour où la Terre s'arrêta" -> "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (movie title)

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16y ago

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