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La sorcière regarda la princesse et cria.

La sorcière regarda la princesse et cria.
The witch looked at the princess and shouted.
From Lesson 172:The literary past tense for regular verbs (il parla)·French

Breakdown of La sorcière regarda la princesse et cria.

et
and
regarder
to watch
crier
to shout
la sorcière
the witch
la princesse
the princess

Questions & Answers about La sorcière regarda la princesse et cria.

Why do regarda and cria end in -a instead of -e or -é?
They are conjugated in the passé simple, a past tense used mostly in writing and literature. For regular -er verbs like regarder (to look) and crier (to shout), the il/elle (he/she) form ends with a simple -a.
How is this different from the past tense I already know?
In everyday spoken French, you would use the passé composé and say a regardé and a crié. The passé simple does the exact same job but is used almost exclusively in written storytelling, which is why it often shows up in fairy tales about witches and princesses.
Wait, doesn't an -a ending mean it's the future tense?
It is very easy to mix them up! The future tense for "she will look" is regardera (notice the -r- before the -a). The passé simple uses the verb stem without that -r-, making it regarda (she looked). The same goes for cria (shouted) versus criera (will shout).
Why isn't there a word for "at" in regarda la princesse?
In English, we say "looked at", but the French verb regarder already has "at" built into its meaning. It attaches directly to its object, so you never need to add a preposition like à after it.

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