It's a little complicated because it depends on the specific verb in question as well as the situation. For example, let's look at the past tense of Venir (to come). "He came here" can be translated with "Il est venu ici." As for another very common verb être (to be), this verb can be translated to past tense in the following coversation about "being there" with: "So, you were there?" "Yes, I was there." "Donc vous y étiez?" "Oui, j’y étais." A useful tip for some past tense verbs is that they can often end in "u." vu, su, cru, dû... For example, VOIR (to see): "Je l'ai vu" (I saw it)... SAVOIR (to know): "J’ai toujours su que vous étiez belle." (I always knew you were pretty)... CROIRE (to believe): "J’ai toujours cru que notre stratégie..." (I always believed that our strategy...)" DEVOIR (to have to): "J'ai dû quitter la maison." (I had to leave home). Finally, a couple more examples using imperfect tenses with "nous." C’est tout ce que nous savions. (It's everything we wanted). Nous voulions un enfant. (We were wanting a kid). Nous n’avions rien. (We had nothing). Hope those examples help you a little.

Right now, I know two past tenses. I'm not sure if there are more. Arg I hope I'm not making any mistakes. :l The first one being passé composé and the second being l'imparfait. Generally speaking, passé composé is used for an action that occurred once in the past and is finished, or interrupted another action. L'imparfait is used when the action is habitual or repeated, or describes time, age, etc. For both, there are certain rules, but for passé composé, if a verb is "Dr. Mrs. Vandertramp" (acronym for irregulars) or a reflexive verb (se ___________), you would use the present tense form of <être> and then put the verb after (with reflexive, je me suis __________). There are a lot of rules for this though, for agreements and what to agree with :/ For everything else, use <avoir> and follow the same rule. For verb endings in this tense, er > é. ir > i. re > ru. The imperfect tense uses the present tense "nous" conjugation of a verb, drops the -ons, and replaces it with appropriate endings. Je -ais Tu -ais Il/Elle/On/Qui -ait Nous -ions Vous -iez Ils/Elles -aient I hope this helps! :D Edit: Examples! Since I am male: Je suis allé __________ = I went to ___________ (passé composé) J'ai aidé _______ = I helped ________ (passé composé) J'avais douze ans quand = I was 12 when _________ (l'imparfait)

hi in french we have two common past tenses: le passe compose et l'imparfait A) now the structure of passe compose: etre/avoir + participe passe for only 14 verbs you use etre (these are the verbs: aller, venir, passer, rester, mourir, naitre, tomber, retourner, arriver, monter, descendre, sortir, entrer, partir) how to make a participe passe: 1st group (the verbs which end to "er"): that "er' becomes "é" like: manger - - - - mangé 2nd group (the verbs which end to "ir"): that "ir' becomes "i" like; finir - - - - - fini 3rd group: generally irregular now just u need etre or avoir + one of these participe passe. examples with both auxiliary a) je suis allé(e) - tu es allé(e) - il est allé - elle est allée - nous sommes allé(e)s - vous etes allé(e)(s) - ils sont allés - elles sont allées b) j'ai dansé - tu as dansé - il/elle a dansé - nous sommes dansé - vous etes dansé - ils/elles sont dansé B) l'imparfait is even easier. u conjugate any verb in 1st person plural in present of indicative, like: choisir- - - - nous choisissons now remove that "ons". what you have, is "choisiss". now add these endings: ais/ais/ait/ions/iez/aient so it becomes: je choisissais - tu choisissais - il choisissait - nous choisissions - vous choisissiez - ils choisissaient thr is some exceptions such as etre: yous should say: j'etais, tu etais,... hope it helps u. :)