Grammar · Verbs & tenses
Passé composé or imparfait — which past tense
French splits the past into two tools that work together: choose the right one when you're telling a story — what actually happened versus what was going on around it.
Ask one question: is this what happened, or how things were?
- Hier, j'ai fini mon travail.Yesterday, I finished my work.
- Elle est partie à huit heures.She left at eight.
- Tout à coup, le téléphone a sonné.Suddenly, the phone rang.
- Quand j'étais petit, j'habitais à Lyon.When I was little, I lived in Lyon.
- Il faisait beau et les oiseaux chantaient.The weather was nice and the birds were singing.
- Je dormais quand le téléphone a sonné.I was sleeping when the phone rang.
Hier, je mangeais au restaurant. Hier, j'ai mangé au restaurant. — a one-time, finished event — that's passé composé
Quand j'ai été petit, j'habitais à Lyon. Quand j'étais petit, j'habitais à Lyon. — a lasting state/backdrop — that's imparfait
- the simple past covers everything: I ate, I was eating, I used to eat — one form, three ideas
- two tenses, split by what kind of past it is: passé composé for the event, imparfait for the backdrop
- mixing them up is one of the most common English-speaker mistakes
The classic pattern of a story: imparfait sets the scene, passé composé is what happens in it. Je dormais quand le téléphone a sonné — the sleeping is the backdrop, the ringing is the event.
Words tend to point one way. Soudain, tout à coup, un jour → passé composé. Souvent, toujours, tous les jours, quand (in a repeated sense) → imparfait.
A few verbs shift meaning between the two. Je savais = I knew vs j'ai su = I found out. Il pouvait = he was able to (in general) vs il a pu = he managed to (that one time).
