French · Chapter 15 · Lesson 8 · Grammar primer
Venir de + infinitive: the recent past
venir de + infinitive means 'to have just done' (je viens de manger). The present-tense form, the imperfect venais de for 'had just', and how it differs from the passe compose.
The short version
The recent past runs on the present tense
Venir de plus an infinitive means to have just done something, and venir stays present: je viens de manger, il vient d'arriver. J'ai venu de manger is not French, because the recency already lives in venir de. Shift venir into the imperfect and you get had just instead.
Je viens de manger.
That's the gist. The full article goes deeper - more examples, the edge cases, the why - and the practice below scores like a vocabulary session and earns the same XP.
Read the full article · 5 min readPractice
Practise this lesson
25-question session
One question at a time, mixed across the exercises in this lesson. Miss one and it comes back round before the end.
French · Free printables
Worksheets for this lesson
Worksheets with answer keys built in. Open any one to view, print or save.
Free for members
The printable worksheets, infographics and PDFs are free with an account. Start a free week and download as many as you like.
Start your free weekLesson 8 of 24 in this chapter