le passé simple in French

The passé simple (English: Literary past tense) is utilized in rather literary contexts. It's mainly used to speak about a completed action in the past which has no relation to the present tense. 

It expresses a completed action of the past, most often a brief action

Formation of the passé simple

The forms of the passé simple can be formed with the following endings:

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Regular forms of the passé simple

The passé simple for regular forms are the same for all verbs groups. They are composed of the stem of the verbs in which you add the endings: 

• -ai -as -a  -âmes -âtes -èrent for the 1st group verbs
• -is -is  -it -îmes -îtes -irent for the 2nd group verbs

Examples  

Irregular forms of the passé simple

They are many verbs that make the litterary past tense irregular: the auxiliary verbs 'être' and 'avoir' and verbs of the 3rd group. They differ from the remaining irregular verbs by their stem

Passe simple of avoir and être

You use the passe simple avoir or être to conjugate the Past anterior

Passe simple of 3rd group verbs

The litterary past tense has three types of endings for the irregular verbs: 

• For the irregular verbs ending in -re: -is -is -it -îmes -îtes -irent
• For the irregular verbs ending in -oir: -us -us -ut -ûmes -ûtes - urent 
• For the irregular verbs ending in -ir: -ins, -ins, -int, înmes, întes, înrent