Grammar: Recent Past tense

ByFast French

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.

Present tense of VENIR + DE + INFINITIVE of other verb

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

je viens de donnerI have just given
tu viens de donneryou have just given
il vient de donnerhe has just given
nous venons de donnerwe have just given
vous venez de donneryou (formal/plural) have just given
ils viennent de donnerthey 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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