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Things to remember:- You will never use the past historic when you speak, it is mostly used to report actions or facts in formal and journalistic style.
The past historic
This tense is the equivalent of the perfect but only used in formal written style such as in newspapers, books or reports. For example:
- Le hold-up se déroula de façon si rapide que personne ne put identifier les malfaiteurs.
- The hold-up took place so quickly that nobody could identify the gangsters.
If you wanted to say this sentence you will use the perfect instead:
- Le hold-up s’est déroulé si rapidement que personne n’a pu identifier les malfaiteurs.
Formation
| Chanter (to sing) | Finir (to finish) | Rendre (to put back) |
| Je chant -AI | fin -IS | Je chant -AI fin -IS |
| Tu chant -AS | fin -IS | rend -IS |
| Il chant -A | fin -IT | rend -IT |
| Nous chant -ÂMES | fin -ÎMES | rend -ÎMES |
| Vous chant - ÂTES | fin -ÎMES | rend -ÎMES |
| Ils chant -ÈRENT | fin -IRENT | rend -IRENT |
The verbs with an infinitive ending in –ER, the first group of verbs, use the endings listed above.
But you need to remember the problem with the cedilla being added to the verbs ending with –cer such as lancer (to throw) and with –ger such as manger (to eat).
With the endings in all the persons except the 3rd person plural you need to add the cedilla to the C and an E after the G:
- Tu lanças et vous mangeâtes. The 3rd person plural doesn ‘t need these extra additions :
- Ils mangèrent et ils lancèrent.
The 3rd group of verbs have the stem and the –IS endings as above with a few exceptions such as:
- courir (to run)
- Je courus, tu courus, il courut, nous courûmes, vous courûtes, ils coururent.
- Venir
- Je vins, tu vins, il vint, nous vîmes, vous vîtes, ils virent.
The irregular verbs are not very predictable. They have two types of endings using –I- or –U- such as:
- Avoir
- J’eus, tu eus, il eut, nous eûmes, vous eûtes, ils eurent.
- Voir
- Je vis, tu vis, il vit, nous vîmes, vous vîtes, ils virent.
Other examples :
- Je partis, tu reçus, il crut, nous vînmes, vous lûtes, ils voulurent.
Exercise vv
Find the infinitive in French and in English of the verbs above
You will not come across this tense very often but it is important to be able to recognise it.
Use of past historic
As you have read you will come across the past historic but you will probably not use it. Its use is similar to the use of the perfect in French (passé-composé) but in formal writing and reports used in newspapers and magazines.
Using it to speak would make you sound like a person from another century that’s why you will come across this tense in literature. It is nowadays considered obsolete for oral purposes and would make you sound pedantic, pompous or “from another century”!
So instead of using the passé-composé, as we have seen before, the equivalent of the English present perfect and simple past tenses: I have done or I did.
The next section deals with: The Pluperfect