The preposition changes the meaning
venir
The constructions
Meaning : the recent past: an action just completed
Je viens de finir mes devoirs.
Do not writeJe viens finir mes devoirs.
Meaning : to come and do
Viens voir ce que j'ai trouvé !
Meaning : where you come from
Elle vient de Kaohsiung.
Why
Venir de before an infinitive is the recent past: je viens de manger means I ate a moment ago. Venir before an infinitive with no preposition expresses movement: viens manger! A single de changes the tense of the sentence. Venir de before a place states the origin.
The trap for a Chinese speaker
剛剛 is venir de + infinitive, and nothing else. « Je viens finir » would mean you are arriving in order to finish: no longer the past.
Read the full lesson : Verbal periphrases →