Using Venir de to Express Having "Just Did Something"

A photo of Montréal, Québec by Andrew Welch (Unsplash License)

Step 1: Conjugate venir

When using venir right after a pronoun, you would need to use the correct conjugations. Let's review the conjugations for venir in le présent tense:

> Je viens Tu viens Il/Elle/On vient Nous venons Vous venez Ils/Elles viennent

Step 2: Add de

Next, remember to add de after conjugating venir! Otherwise, you would just be saying someone is ‘coming to do something’ instead of them having ‘just did something’. For example:

Je viens étudier dans la bibliothèque.
I come to study in the library. Je viens d'étudier dans la bibliothèque.
I just studied in the library.

Step 3: Add a verb

Now, the easy part is to stick a verb behind de. The great thing is you don't have to conjugate it at all! For example:

Elle vient de dire...
She just said... Nous venons d'apprendre...
We just learned...

Note how dire ‘to say’ and apprendre ‘to learn’ are not conjugated.

That's it!

You should now have the basic skill on how to express the idea of someone having just done something using venir de. A few more examples:

Elle vient de dire qu'elle ne comprenait pas la question.
= She just said that she did not understand the question. Nous venons d'apprendre qu'il n'y a pas des examens aujourd'hui.
We just learned that there will be no exams today.

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