I can tell a story: what was the background (imparfait) and what happened (passé composé) — and not mix up “it was raining” and “it rained”.
Background and event: two past tenses
Background and event: two past tenses
Imparfait answers “what was it like, and what was going on at that moment?” Passé composé answers “what happened?”
The time expressions of each tense are in the table below.
Pendant que introduces the background: Pendant que je lisais, Léa est rentrée.
Repeated with no count — imparfait: Je mangeais au restaurant le soir. A set number of times — passé composé: J'ai mangé au restaurant trois fois. An event can last and still be an event if it's over: Nous avons attendu une heure.
The English trap: “lived”, “rained”, “was sick” can be either tense. French chooses by the role of the sentence in the story: background or habit (in English often “was -ing”, “used to”) — imparfait; event — passé composé. A state can be an event too, if it began and ended.
The past participle plu belongs to two verbs: plaire (Ce film m'a plu) and pleuvoir (Il a plu). The subject tells them apart.
Common mistakes:
• NOT “Soudain, il pleuvait.” — Soudain, il a plu.
• NOT “Quand j'étais petit, j'ai pris le bus tous les jours.” — je prenais le bus.
• NOT “Pendant que nous avons attendu le bus, il a plu.” — Pendant que nous attendions le bus.
Background or event
English “lived” or “rained” can be either tense: French chooses by the role of the sentence in the story.
| Question | Tense | Example |
|---|---|---|
| what it was like | imparfait | la maison était calme |
| what people usually did | imparfait | nous jouions dans le jardin |
| what was going on at that moment | imparfait | il faisait nuit |
| what happened | passé composé | Julien est entré |
| a set number of times | passé composé | nous avons visité Nice trois fois |
Time expressions for the two tenses
The time expression almost always decides the tense for you.
| Background — imparfait | Event — passé composé |
|---|---|
| avant | hier |
| autrefois | soudain |
| à cette époque | un jour |
| tous les jours | une fois, trois fois |
| souvent, d'habitude | la semaine dernière |
Lesson notes
Background and event: two past tenses
Imparfait answers “what was it like, and what was going on at that moment?” Passé composé answers “what happened?”
The time expressions of each tense are in the table below.
Pendant que introduces the background: Pendant que je lisais, Léa est rentrée.
Repeated with no count — imparfait: Je mangeais au restaurant le soir. A set number of times — passé composé: J'ai mangé au restaurant trois fois. An event can last and still be an event if it's over: Nous avons attendu une heure.
The English trap: “lived”, “rained”, “was sick” can be either tense. French chooses by the role of the sentence in the story: background or habit (in English often “was -ing”, “used to”) — imparfait; event — passé composé. A state can be an event too, if it began and ended.
The past participle plu belongs to two verbs: plaire (Ce film m'a plu) and pleuvoir (Il a plu). The subject tells them apart.
Common mistakes:
• NOT “Soudain, il pleuvait.” — Soudain, il a plu.
• NOT “Quand j'étais petit, j'ai pris le bus tous les jours.” — je prenais le bus.
• NOT “Pendant que nous avons attendu le bus, il a plu.” — Pendant que nous attendions le bus.