It's all in the past!!!

It is not advised to read this  if you are a beginner!!

Once students get over "conjugating", this usually starts with  the present tense, I hate to break the news that there are more tenses: future and past tenses. The past tenses are quite tricky because there is a selection to choose from and it takes time and practice to not only conjugate (build the verb with the right ending) but also to choose the right past tense!

Basically you will need to know the perfect (le passé composé) and the imperfect (l'imparfait). Some people like to mention the past historic (le passé simple), called the simple past, not so simple, since nobody ever uses it in the spoken language and it only shows up in history books, poetry or novels. It is handy to identify it and understand its meaning but there are so many verbs to remember in the first place in useful tenses that I like to priorotise.There is only that much one can memorize in the first years.

I don't like to explain things by translation but sometimes it helps so here goes:

The perfect(J'ai mangé)  is called "passé composé" , a compound of 2 elements : an auxilary (avoir or être) and a past participle (mangé=eaten, été=been, allé=gone). You would use it to narrate an event which happened in the past, it is the equivalent of the English past tenses: "I have eaten", "I ate" and even "I did eat".

The imperfect (Je mangeais) is called l'imparfait. You would use it to:

• describe an action in the past that occured often or regularly. It would then translate: "I used to..."
• describe an action in the past which was happening and interrupted. "I was reading when..." *
• describe a feeling, the atmosphere of the moment, the weather.It sets the scene. "It was a rainy day..."
• report speech in the past: "She said that she was going to the cinema".
• give a suggestion: "If w went to the beach today!"

*Incidentally, whatever interrupts this action would be in the perfect!!!!

And that's why I will leave the past historic for the time being. Follow these links for more information.It is worth reading this , several times to process it and of course practice, practice, practice...

When to use the imperfect.
How to conjugate the imperfect.

When to use  the perfect.
How to conjugate the perfect.

Perfect or imperfect: Practice.

Don't forget to use the Conjugueur to check your verbs or the verb Bible: le Bescherelle!

A Famous French poem in the perfect tense:
Hear the audio.

Déjeuner du matin (Jacques Prevert)

Il a mis le café
Dans la tasse
Il a mis le lait
Dans la tasse de café
Il a mis le sucre
Dans le café au lait
Avec la petite cuiller
Il a tourné
Il a bu le café au lait
Et il a reposé la tasse
Sans me parler
Il a allumé
Une cigarette
Il a fait des ronds
Avec la fumée
Il a mis les cendres
Dans le cendrier
Sans me parler
Sans me regarder
Il s'est levé
Il a mis
Son chapeau sur sa tête
Il a mis son manteau de pluie
Parce qu'il pleuvait
Et il est parti

Sous la pluie

Sans une parole

Sans me regarder

Et moi j'ai pris

Ma tête dans ma main

Et j'ai pleuré.