trouvai

trouvai is the first-person singular form of the French verb trouver in the passé simple, a literary past tense meaning “I found.” It is primarily encountered in written, especially historical or narrative, contexts and is uncommon in everyday spoken French, where the passé composé “j’ai trouvé” is used instead.

In the passé simple, trouver conjugates as: je trouvai, tu trouvas, il trouva, nous trouvâmes, vous trouvâtes, ils trouvèrent. An example sentence is “Je trouvai une clé sur la table.” The tense is typically found in novels, historical accounts, poetry, and formal writing, rather than contemporary conversation.

Origin and related forms: trouver derives from Old French trover, a medieval form of the verb meaning to find or discover. The word family includes the noun trouvaille (a discovery, often a fortunate or noteworthy one) and related verb forms such as trouvé (past participle) and trouver in other tenses and moods. In modern usage, the present tense is trouve, the imperfect trouveais, and the past participle trouvé.

Usage notes: Because the passé simple is largely confined to formal or literary prose, seeing trouvai usually signals historical or stylistic writing. In dialogue or narration that aims to imitate spoken language, authors typically choose the passé composé or other contemporary constructions instead.

See also: trouver, trouvaille, passé simple.