Passé récent (venir de + infinitive)
Summary
The passé récent, venir de + infinitive, says that something has just happened; the present of venir means 'has just', and the imparfait of venir means 'had just', mirroring the futur proche on the other side of the timeline.
Explanation
The passé récent expresses that an action has just taken place. It is built with the verb venir, followed by de, followed by an infinitive: je viens de finir = 'I have just finished'. Only venir is conjugated; de never changes and the second verb stays in the infinitive. Before a vowel, de elides: il vient d'arriver.
The tense of venir sets the reference point. With venir in the present, the action is recent relative to now: nous venons de manger ('we have just eaten'). With venir in the imparfait, the action was recent relative to a past moment: quand tu as appelé, je venais de sortir ('when you called, I had just gone out'). These two tenses — present and imparfait — are the normal ones; venir is essentially not used in other tenses for this meaning.
It helps to see the passé récent as the mirror image of the futur proche. Aller + infinitive looks just ahead of now (je vais partir, 'I am about to leave'); venir de + infinitive looks just behind it (je viens de partir, 'I have just left'). Both are périphrastic tenses — an auxiliary-like verb plus an infinitive — and both keep the main verb in the infinitive.
Be careful not to confuse this venir with the ordinary motion verb. Je viens de Paris means 'I come from Paris' (origin), while je viens de manger means 'I have just eaten' (recent past): the difference is that the passé récent is always venir + de + an infinitive, whereas the motion sense is venir + de + a place or noun. Likewise, do not turn venir into the passé composé here — 'je suis venu de manger' is wrong for 'I have just eaten'.
Stylistically, the passé récent emphasises freshness and immediacy and is extremely common in speech. Where English says 'I've just...', French almost always reaches for venir de rather than a plain passé composé; both je viens de la voir and je l'ai vue are past, but only the first stresses that it happened a moment ago.
Rule of thumb: to say something has just happened, take venir in the present (just now) or the imparfait (just before a past point), add de, and finish with the infinitive — and never let venir slip into a compound past tense in this construction.
Examples
Je viens de finir mes devoirs. — I have just finished my homework. (Present of venir = 'have just'; only venir is conjugated.)
Le train vient de partir. — The train has just left. (de elides before a consonant stays de; here vient de + infinitive.)
Quand tu as téléphoné, je venais de me réveiller. — When you phoned, I had just woken up. (Imparfait of venir = 'had just', anchored to a past moment.)
Elle vient d'arriver à la maison. — She has just arrived home. (Elision: vient + arriver → vient d'arriver.)
Nous venons de voir ce film, il est excellent. — We have just seen this film; it's excellent. (Stresses immediacy where a plain passé composé would be neutral.)
Je vais sortir, mais lui, il vient de rentrer. — I am about to go out, but he has just come back. (Mirror contrast: futur proche (vais sortir) vs passé récent (vient de rentrer).)
Common mistakes
Je suis venu de manger, alors je n'ai pas faim.
Je viens de manger, alors je n'ai pas faim.
The recent past 'to have just done something' is venir de + infinitive, and venir is conjugated in the present, not the passé composé: je viens de manger ('I have just eaten'), not 'je suis venu de manger', which would be the literal movement verb ('I came in order to eat'). Use the present of venir for something that just happened relative to now, and the imparfait (je venais de manger) for something that had just happened relative to a past moment. Never put venir into a compound past here, and never drop de.
Prerequisites
Related rules
passe-recentvenir-deperiphrastic-tenseaspect