Grammar: Recent Past tense

The French verb tense called the Recent Past (or Passé Récent in French) is a way to talk about things that have happened in the past, but quite recently.

It translates in English as “to have just (done something).”

It is very easy to use because it doesn’t use an actual past tense, so it doesn’t require knowledge of any additional verb stems or endings.

Let’s use the verb “donner” (to give) as an example:

je viens de donner	I have just given
tu viens de donner	you have just given
il vient de donner	he has just given
nous venons de donner	we have just given
vous venez de donner	you (formal/plural) have just given
ils viennent de donner	they have just given

So – as long as you can conjugate the present tense of “venir” (by following the example above), you can easily construct the Recent Past tense.

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