What are the tenses used to express the past in French?

Various past tenses are used in French: "le passé composé" for completed actions, "l'imparfait" for ongoing or habitual actions, "le passé récent" for recent events, "le plus-que-parfait" for actions preceding another past event, "le passé simple" for literary works, and "le passé antérieur" for actions before another past event. Each has a specific function in conveying past events in French.