grammar
Le passé récent: Expressing what "just" happened.
If you want to say that you "just" did something moments ago, you don't need a complex past tense. French uses a very simple, elegant structure called the recent past (le passé récent). All you need is the verb venir (to come)!
The Formula: Venir + de + Infinitif
To build this tense, you simply conjugate the verb venir in the present tense, add the preposition de (or d' before a vowel), and attach your action verb in the infinitive form.
« Je viens d'arriver. » (I just arrived.)
« Nous venons de téléphoner au client. » (We just called the client.)
« Ils viennent de recevoir un fax. » (They just received a fax.)
« Je viens de m'occuper de... » (I just took care of...)
If you translate this structure literally word-for-word, it sounds quite poetic in English: "I come from arriving" or "We come from telephoning." Think of it as walking away from the action you have just completed!