Fémes

Fûmes is a verb form in French. It is the passé simple form of the auxiliary verb être for the subject nous, translating as "we were."

In contemporary French, the passé simple is mostly confined to literature, historical writing, and certain formal narratives; in everyday speech and most modern writing, people use the passé composé: nous avons été. As a result, fûmes is considered archaic or literary in most modern contexts.

Example: Nous fûmes témoins de son arrivée. In narratives, this form can indicate a sequence of past events.

Etymology and form: The passé simple of être is irregular; fûmes shares the stem fû- with other related forms (fûtes, furent, fus). The circumflex on û reflects historical phonological changes in French and is retained in the spelling.

Related topics include the other passé simple conjugations of être and other irregular verbs in the passé simple.