écrivîmes

Écrivîmes is the passé simple form of the French verb écrire for the first-person plural, meaning “we wrote.” It is used in literary or formal narrative to describe completed past actions.

Formation and forms: In the passé simple of écrire, the main forms are j’écrivis, tu écrivit, il écrivit, nous écrivîmes, vous écrivîtes, ils écrivirent. The nous form uses the stem écriv- with the ending -îmes. This tense is characteristic of literary style, especially in historical chronicles and novels.

Usage context: The passé simple is largely confined to written language and is rarely used in everyday speech, where the passé composé predominates. Writers employ it to convey a sense of distance, formality, or narrative progression, particularly in long-form fiction, poetry, or formal historical texts.

Example: Nous écrivîmes une longue lettre pour raconter les événements de notre voyage. This illustrates how the tense situates an action as completed within a past frame in a narrative.

See also: passé simple, French verb conjugation, écrire.