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La bête ferma la porte du château et resta là.

La bête ferma la porte du château et resta là.
The beast closed the castle door and stayed there.
From Lesson 172:The literary past tense for regular verbs (il parla)·French

Questions & Answers about La bête ferma la porte du château et resta là.

Why does the sentence use ferma instead of a fermé?
Ferma is the passé simple (historic past) form of the regular -er verb fermer (to close). You will mostly see this tense in written stories, fairy tales, and literature. In everyday spoken French, you would use the passé composé and say a fermé.
Is resta also in the passé simple?
Yes! It is the passé simple of rester (to stay) for the third-person singular (he, she, or it). Regular -er verbs always drop the -er and add -a for this form in the passé simple.
If I wanted to say that the beast stayed in everyday spoken French, would I say a resté?
No, because rester uses être as its helping verb in the passé composé. In a normal conversation, you would say est restée (adding an e because la bête is feminine). Notice that the passé simple form resta is easier here because it doesn't use a helping verb!
Why does là have an accent mark over the letter a?
The accent does not change the pronunciation, but it changes the meaning! Without the accent, la is the feminine word for the (like in la bête). With the grave accent, là means there or here.
Why is it du château instead of de le château?
In French, the preposition de (of) and the masculine definite article le (the) must always combine to form du. So, the door of the castle becomes la porte du château.

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