What are the different past tenses in French?

The different past tenses in French are the recent past le passé récent, the present perfect le passé composé, the imperfect l’imparfait, the pluperfect le plus-que-parfait, and the past historic le passé simple. Each tense follows different rules for how to discuss past actions, and each follows a different conjugation pattern. Take a look:

• je viens de chanter (meaning I just sang)

  → le passé récent

• j’ai chanté (meaning I have sung)

  → le passé composé

• je chantais (meaning I was singing)

  → l’imparfait

• j’avais chanté (meaning I had sung)

  → le plus-que-parfait

• je chantai (meaning I sang)

  → le passé simple

In this post, I’m taking you on a journey through the past tenses in the indicative mood. We will recap the recent past, the perfect tense, the imperfect, the pluperfect, and the past historic. Attention, immediate take-off! 🚀

Our first stop is the French recent past passé récent, which you use when you have just done something or when you want to report an event that just happened, with your point of reference being the present moment.

Here is the formula to form the recent past:

Now let’s carry on our time travel, next stop is le passé composé.

Le passé composé, or the present perfect, is most likely the past tense you will use the most when talking about a unique and complete action in the past. The present perfect is used for actions that only happened once and started and finished in the past. This is equivalent to the simple past (or preterite) in English (e.g. spoke, finished, sold). You will also use it for a past action within a limited time, a succession of events, and repetitions.

The perfect tense is a French compound tense, meaning it is made up of two parts: an auxiliary and a past participle. Most verbs use the auxiliary avoir (meaning to have) , but a handful of verbs use the auxiliary être (meaning to be) (I suggest you learn them by heart ). Here is the formula for the passé composé:

The past participle is generally formed as follows:

• for -er verbs, the -er become -é:

  parler (meaning to speak) → parlé

• for -ir verbs, the -ir become -i:

  finir (meaning to finish) → fini

• for -re verbs, the -re become -u:

  vendre (meaning to sell)→ vendu

In this last example above, we are talking about the same past action (to perform in a play) repeated several times. You need to add a clear number of times or a phrase like plusieurs fois (meaning several times) in your sentence to differentiate the repetition from the recurring event, in which case you would use the imperfect (l’actrice jouait dans cette pièce de théâtre (meaning “the actress used to perform in this play”).

We can’t talk about the perfect tense without moving on to the imperfect, as they are often used together.

Usually, you will use l’imparfait in French to make descriptions in the past, and to talk about past habits with the idea that the event lasts in time or is recurring over time. Your point of reference is the present when using the imperfect. It is equivalent to saying “used to do,” “was doing,” or “would do.”

The formula for the imperfect tense is as follows:

To form l’imparfait, there are two steps:

• take the nous (meaning we) form of the verb in the present tense (aller (meaning to go)→ nous allons)

• Remove the -ons and add the endings -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient (ils allaient)

However, there are some verbs whose stem changes in the imperfect, so make sure to brush up on your conjugations!

However, there are some verbs whose stem changes in the imperfect, so make sure to brush up on your conjugations!

Often, in narrative, l’imparfait and le passé composé are used alongside each other: the imperfect sets the scene and the perfect tense describes the main events. Understanding when to use the imperfect versus the perfect tense in French is an important skill to have in your toolbox!

Now let’s travel deeper in the past and look at le plus-que-parfait.

We use the French pluperfect tense, or le plus-que-parfait, to talk about a past action that happened before another past action. For example, I could talk about the soccer game which my favorite team played last week, comparing it to the game they had played the month before.

The pluperfect follows this formula:

The pluperfect is, like the perfect tense, a compound tense: it is formed with an auxiliary and a past participle. In the pluperfect, the auxiliaries avoir (meaning to have) and être (meaning to be) are conjugated in the imperfect. It follows very much the same conjugation rules as le passé composé.

We have one last stop on our journey: le passé simple.

The French past historic tense, or le passé simple appears essentially only in written forms. If you have ever read a French novel, there is no doubt that you have come across it. You will also hear it in very formal speeches. (Try listening to this speech by Emmanuel Macron. Can you recognize the verbs in the past historic? You can check your answers with the transcription.)

We use le passé simple to talk about a unique past event that is completed. The past historic is used alongside the imperfect in the exact same way as the perfect and imperfect are used together.

To help you recognize verbs in le passé simple, here are the endings:

For -re verbs, there are three types of endings, along with some irregular verbs. Time to brush up on your conjugations!

Before we recap, I would like to mention verb tables. They are very useful tools to check your verb endings, and especially when you’re in doubt about irregular verbs. I would like to suggest this one as all the conjugated verbs are translated — which is a rare thing — and it gives you the option to test yourself.

When talking about past actions in French, you’ll need to keep the following in mind about the French past tenses:

• Use the recent past venir de for events that have just happened.

• The perfect tense is for completed and unique events and is used in writing or speaking.

• The past historic is for completed and unique events in the (more distant) past and is used in writing.

• The imperfect is for descriptions and recurring events in the past.

• Often used alongside the perfect tense (in writing and speaking) or the past historic (mainly in writing), the imperfect sets the scene whilst the perfect tense or the past historic announce the main events.

• The pluperfect is for past actions that refer to a moment in the past that is further away than another event that happened in a closer moment in the past.

Now it’s time to practice! Check out our exercises to practice the various past tenses in French!