The only way to express the idea of "just" having done something in French is to use the present tense of the verb venir plus the preposition de plus the infinitive of whatever action you wish to describe. This construction may be used when the past action has happened very recently.
| Examples: |
| Je viens d'écrire l'explication de cette structure. |
I just wrote the explanation of this construction. |
| Vous venez de lire ce que j'ai écrit. |
You just read what I wrote. |
This is not a verb tense. It is, rather, a device for expressing a specific time frame, much like the futur proche (the near future), which lets us speak of an event that is coming up soon. We do somewhat the same thing in English when we use the word "just" to convey the recent past.
| Examples: |
| Il vient de gagner l'élection. |
He just won the election. |
| On vient d'annoncer les résultats. |
They just announced the results. |
This device may only be used with the present tense (to describe a recent action) or with the imperfect (to describe an event entirely in the past). Compare the two sentences below:
| Example: |
| Il vient d'arriver. |
He just arrived. |
| Il venait d'arriver quand les autres invités partaient. |
He had just arrived when the other guests were leaving. |
Or these two:
| Example: |
| Nous venons de lire un roman bien intéressant. |
We just read an interesting novel. |
| Mon père venait de lire l'article quand le reporter lui a téléphoné. |
My dad had just read the article when the reporter called him. |
More examples:
| Le prof vient de vous expliquer cette construction. Il vient de vous l'expliquer. |
The teacher has just explained this construction to you. He just explained it to you. |
| Mon père venait d'acheter une nouvelle voiture quand il a eu un accident. |
My dad had just bought a new car when he had an accident. |
| Je venais d'entrer quand le téléphone a sonné. |
I had just come in when the phone rang. |
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