You've already learnt how to recognise -er verbs in Le Passé Simple (Indicatif). Let's find out how to conjugate them and aller in Le Passé Simple.
Learn how to conjugate -er verbs and ALLER (to go) in Le Passé Simple (Indicatif) in French
Look at these examples:
To conjugate -er verbs in Le Passé Simple (Indicatif), here is what to do:
Stem of the verb (without -ER) + endings: -ai, -as, -a, -âmes, -âtes, -èrent
Note that the endings of the je/tu/il/elle/on forms (-ai, -as, -a) are the same as the Le Futur Simple (Indicatif) endings.
The difference between the two tenses is that in Le Futur Simple (Indicatif), you keep the infinitive as the stem (je parler-ai), or use an irregular stem for aller (j'ir-ai), whereas in Le Passé Simple (Indicatif), you remove the -ER from the stem (je parl-ai).
Case of -CER, -GER and -GUER verbs
-CER and -GER verbs take ç or an extra e, respectively, in front of -a, but not in front of -è, while -GUER verbs take gu- in all forms:
Les célébrations commencèrent à sept heures, mais le feu d'artifice ne commença que vers dix heures.The celebrations started at seven, but the fireworks only started around ten.
Pronunciation:
The tricky part here is that the je form (j'arrivai) has the same pronunciation as the L'Imparfait (Indicatif) form j'arrivais. However, since Le Passé Simple (Indicatif) is an almost exclusively written form, this should not be an obstacle to conversation!
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