The passé composé :
Before we look at the use of the passé composé and the imparfait, a little reminder doesn't hurt.
The passé composé is a tense used to talk about the past.
It is formed with the auxiliary "être" or "avoir" in the present + a past participle.
The auxiliary "être" is used with the verbs of movement, of state and with the pronominal and reflexive verbs.
The past participle agrees with the subject when the auxiliary "être" is used.
The auxiliary "avoir" is used with all other verbs. The past participle does not agree with the subject with "avoir", but it does agree with the direct object (the COD) if it is placed before the auxiliary.
In summary :
The imparfait :
The imparfait tense is also used to talk about the past.
To form the imparfait tense we take a verb. We conjugate it in the present tense with the pronoun "nous". We keep the radical, that is to say that we remove the ending, and we keep what remains. And to this radical we will add the following endings:
Je - ais. Tu - ais. Il / Elle / On - ait. Nous - ions. Vous - iez. Ils / Elles - aient.
⚠️ There is one important exception: being.
We take the base -ét
J'étais - Tu étais - Il / On / Elle était - Nous étions - Vous étiez - Ils / Elles étaient
Passé composé or imparfait ?
The passé composé is used for :
-
talk about one-off actions in the past.
For example : Hier, j’ai pris l’avion.
This does not happen every day, it is not a habit, it is punctual -
talk about an action with a limited duration in the past.
For example : J’ai travaillé dans cette entreprise de 2017 à 2019.
We have a date that specifies the limited duration of this past action. -
talk about successive and punctual actions in the past.
For example : J’ai quitté mon travail, je suis partie en Argentine et j’ai acheté une maison là-bas.
We have here several punctual and successive actions, in the past.
The imparfait is used for :
-
talk about a habit in the past.
For example : Quand j’étais jeune, je mangeais tous les jours des bonbons.
It was my habit to eat candy every day, so I use the imperfect tense. -
talk about one's feelings, state of mind or express an opinion in the past.
For example : J’étais fatiguée, je me sentais déprimée et je pensais que plus rien n’avait de sens.
Here I express my feelings, my state of mind and the opinion I had in the past.
-
describe a situation or place in the past.
For example : La rue était vide, il y avait du soleil et l’atmosphère était jovial.
I describe the context, the situation and the place in the past.
In summary, when you tell something in the past tense, the imparfait tense is useful for setting the context of your story and talking about your habits in the past.
The passé composé tense will disrupt your context with punctual and decisive actions in your story. In general, the actions introduced by the passé composé tense are main, more important.
Let's take an example:
We can see that the first paragraph of my story in the past tense describes the context and my habits while the second paragraph describes specific and limited actions in the past.
Some remarks on the passé composé and the imparfait ?
First remark :
It is quite normal to have verbs in the past tense and in the imperfect tense in the same sentence. It all depends on what the verb is expressing in the sentence.
For example : J’ai fait une promenade dans un endroit qui était magnifique.
The verb "faire" is in the past tense, because it is a one-time action in the past.
The verb "être" is in the imperfect tense, because it describes the past situation of how my one-time action happened.
Second remark :
It is sometimes possible to put a verb in the past tense, but also in the imperfect tense. However, the context of the sentence will change.
For example :
Sentence 1 : Quand Laure choisissait sa robe de mariage, elle était très stressée.
Sentence 2 : Quand Laure a choisi sa robe de mariage, elle était très stressée.
In my sentence 1, I use the imperfect tense because I am describing the situation at the time that was in the past. I am describing what she was doing.
In my sentence 2, I'm using the past tense, because I'm talking about a one-time action, it happened only once, at a specific time.
Third remark :
However, in some cases, it is not possible to use both the passé composé and the imparfait.
For example : Elle jouait à un jeu-vidéo, quand soudainement, son téléphone a sonné.
I couldn't say: Elle a joué à un jeu-vidéo, quand soudainement, son téléphone sonnait.
I use the imparfait tense for the verb "jouer", because I describe what was happening, I introduce the context, when a specific action happened: “le téléphone a sonné”. It would not be possible to do the opposite.
Temporal connectors :
Some temporal connectors are usually used with the passé composé or with the imparfait :
Did you understand? Make a sentence in the passé composé and imparfait tenses in the commentary!
