of Old French. This spelling coexisted with the modern endings -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient and was not officially abandoned by the Académie française until 1835. Example: Verb être : the stem is ét- (/et/), endings are the same. Past historic (Indicatif passé simple or Indicatif passé défini) Note that in modern language this tense is used only in formal writing, usually referring to historical, historic events, or in novels; it was replaced by passé composé in other contexts. The stem of the past historic tense is not always regular but is always invariant for a single verb. There are four sets of endings for this tense: Past historic in -a-: -ai, -as, -a, -âmes, -âtes, -èrent. [1st group and aller] (pronounced .) Past historic in -i-: -is, -is, -it, -îmes, -îtes, -irent. [2nd and 3rd groups] (pronounced .) Past historic in -u-: -us, -us, -ut, -ûmes, -ûtes, -urent. [3rd group] (pronounced .) Past historic in -in-: -ins, -ins, -int, -înmes, -întes, -inrent. [verbs venir, tenir and all the verbs which are formed with them (survenir, maintenir, etc.)] (pronounced .) Je chantai, je finis, je bus, je vins… Example: Future (Indicatif futur simple) The future endings correspond to the present indicative of the verb avoir. They are always regular: -ai, -as, -a, -ons, -ez, -ont, pronounced . Between the future stem and these endings the infinitive ending is inserted, though the pronunciation of the -er infinitive changes from to In other words, to form the future tense these endings are appended to the infinitive: Je finirai, tu parleras, elle sortira, nous travaillerons, vous rougirez, ils partiront. But there are several irregular future stems, especially in the third group. Example: The following verbs have a double r in future forms: envoyer, renvoyer (j'enverrai, je renverrai), mourir (je mourrai), courir (je courrai), choir and échoir (il cherra, il écherra), acquérir and conquérir (j'acquerrai, je conquerrai), voir (je verrai), pouvoir (je pourrai). Present conditional (Conditionnel présent) The conditional endings correspond to those of the imperfect indicative. They too are always regular: -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient, and in some rare cases, -it, pronounced ... The conditional stem is always the same as the future stem: Je finirais, tu parlerais, elle sortirait, nous travaillerions, vous rougiriez, ils partiraient. Consequently, if the future stem is irregular, so will the conditional be, and vice versa. Moreover, if the future does not exist (defective verbs)