Four past tenses, each with one clear job.
French past tenses look like a crowd at first: passé composé, imparfait, plus-que-parfait, passé simple. In practice each one has a clear job, and in everyday speech you mostly need the first two.
This guide gives you the map: what each tense is for, how to recognise it, and how they work together in a single story.
| Tense | Example | In English | Used for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Passé composé | j'ai mangé | I ate, I have eaten | completed events |
| Imparfait | je mangeais | I was eating, I used to eat | descriptions, habits, background |
| Plus-que-parfait | j'avais mangé | I had eaten | an action before another past one |
| Passé simple | je mangeai | I ate | events in novels and formal writing |
The first three are used every day, in speech and in writing. The passé simple is mostly read, not spoken.
The passé composé tells what happened: a finished action, at a point in time. It is built with avoir or être in the present and a past participle: j'ai fini, elle est partie, nous nous sommes levés.
It is the tense of the story's events: hier, j'ai vu Paul ; il m'a raconté son voyage.
The imparfait describes how things were, what used to happen, or what was going on: il faisait froid, nous allions à la plage tous les étés, je lisais quand tu as appelé.
It has one set of endings for every verb, on the stem of the present nous form: nous parlons gives je parlais.
Ask whether the action moves the story forward or sets the scene. An event takes the passé composé; the scene around it takes the imparfait. In je lisais quand le téléphone a sonné, the reading is the scene and the ringing is the event.
Time words often give the answer:
| If you see | Likely tense | Example |
|---|---|---|
| hier, soudain, un jour | passé composé | Soudain, la porte s'est ouverte. |
| souvent, tous les jours, d'habitude | imparfait | Tous les jours, il prenait le bus. |
| pendant que | imparfait | Pendant que je cuisinais, il dormait. |
| déjà, avant | plus-que-parfait | Il était déjà parti. |
The rule page imparfait or passé composé works through the harder cases.
When one past action comes before another, the earlier one takes the plus-que-parfait: avoir or être in the imparfait plus a past participle. Quand je suis arrivé, le film avait commencé.
It also appears after si for an unreal past, si j'avais su, and in reported speech. The guide to the plus-que-parfait in French covers its uses and agreement.
The passé simple tells events in novels, fairy tales, history books and some newspapers: il ouvrit la porte et entra. It does the same job as the passé composé, in a written register.
You rarely need to produce it, but you need to recognise it, especially the third person forms: il fut, elle eut, ils firent. The guide to the passé simple in French lists the patterns.
Here is how the everyday past tenses share a short story:
Hier, il pleuvait quand je suis sorti. J'avais oublié mon parapluie, alors je suis rentré.
For something that has just happened, French uses venir de in the present instead of a past tense: je viens de finir, I have just finished.
Events take the passé composé, scenes and habits the imparfait, earlier actions the plus-que-parfait. The passé simple tells the same events as the passé composé, in books.
What is the most common French past tense?
The passé composé, for completed events, together with the imparfait for descriptions and habits. Those two cover most everyday speech and writing.
How do I choose between the passé composé or imparfait?
Use the passé composé for an event that moves the story forward and the imparfait for the background, a habit or an action in progress.
Do I need to learn the passé simple?
You need to recognise it, because novels and formal texts use it. You rarely need to write it yourself.
When do you use the plus-que-parfait?
For an action that happened before another past action, after si for an unreal past, and in reported speech: il a dit qu'il avait fini.
How do you say I have just done something in French?
Use venir de in the present followed by an infinitive: je viens de manger, I have just eaten.
Apostrophe· reads you a sentence, corrects it word by word, and explains the exact rule behind each mistake.
Try it free