📖LearnModule 10 · Lesson 28 of 30Independent User · CEFR B1 + B2 mastery, and the C1 bridgeUnit 6 · Le pont vers C1
Le passé simple — le reconnaître
Module 10 of the free French course (CEFR B1 + B2 mastery, and the C1 bridge), lesson 28 of 30: . On this page: 8 words with their genders and respellings, the rule, a watch-out line and the audio — the study notes behind the workbook's lesson 28.
The words
French
English
Say it
le passé simple
the simple past (literary)
luh pah-say SA(n)PL
il alla
he went (literary)
eel ah-LAH
elle prit
she took (literary)
ehl PREE
ils furent
they were (literary)
eel FEWR
le roman
the novel
luh roh-MAH(n)
reconnaître
to recognize
ruh-koh-NEHTR
la forme
the form
lah FORM
ne jamais écrire
never to write
nuh zhah-meh zay-KREER
Respellings follow the course’s say-it key; the stressed syllable is in capitals. Print this lesson’s flashcards (PDF) — the words on the front, the English and respelling on the back.
Hear the words
Each word is read twice — say it back in the gap. Computer-generated voice; credits on the course page.
La règle · The rule
Open any French novel and you meet a tense nobody speaks: il alla, elle prit, ils furent. That is the passé simple, and your job with it is READING, not writing.
Et aussi · And also
Recognize the shapes and move on: -a and -èrent for -er verbs (il parla, ils parlèrent), -it and -irent for most others (il finit, ils finirent), and the handful you simply learn — il fut, il eut, il fit, il vint.
Attention · Watch out
The passé simple is for READING, never for writing at this level: il alla, elle prit, ils furent. Recognize -a/-èrent and -it/-irent and move on.
Do it now — on paper
Say all 8 words aloud twice from the respelling, then once from the French spelling alone — begin with le passé simple.
Copy every word with its accents on paper; then cover the English column and write each meaning back from the French.
Write two sentences of your own that get the watch-out line right, then the two practice pages of workbook lesson 28 in Module 10 are the written half of this page.
This free course is the reading half. The writing half — write-in lessons, daily practice pages with built-in review, self-checks and a full answer key — is the companion workbook series, The French Ladder: one workbook per module, fifteen in all, released band by band with the Basic band (Modules 1–5) first.
Keep these words
Turn this lesson’s words into flashcards, then space your reviews — the two habits the research behind our study guides backs hardest.