This is a part of French verb conjugation that is a little tricky to understand, but bear with us if you concentrate just a little you will figure it out. There are multiple past tenses in French, that are used in different scenarios and that have its own conjugation patterns. This article explains the difference between the two main past tenses; The imperfect and the Passé Composé.
The short answer: The Passé Composé is for events and actions that have implicitly ended, while the Imperfect is for events and actions where this is not clear
Below a more thorough explantion with examples
When to use the Imperfect tense in French
- Describes ongoing, repeated, habitual actions or states in the past.
- Sets the scene or provides background information in a narrative.
- Expresses physical and emotional states in the past.
- Often used for simultaneous actions in the past.
- Used for polite or softened statements in formal or written language.
Read more here on how to use and conjugate the imperfect tense
When to use the Passé Composé in French
- Describes completed actions or events in the past.
- Indicates a specific point in time when the action took place.
- Typically used for actions that occurred at a particular moment and have a clear beginning and end.
- Often used for narrating a sequence of events or actions.
- Frequently used in spoken and informal language.
Examples with the Imperfect tense
- Quand j’étais jeune, je jouais au tennis tous les weekends.
- When I was young, I used to play tennis every weekend
Explanation: Quand j’étais jeune sets the scene in the past. Je jouais expresses a habitual action or a repeated action in the past. The speaker is describing a regular activity they used to engage in when they were young, and does not implicitly say that it has stopped.
- Pendant les vacances d’été, nous allions à la plage chaque jour.
- During the summer holidays, we used to go to the beach every day
Explanation: Pendant les vacances d’été indicates a specific period in the past. Nous allions describes a repeated action or a habit during those vacations. The imperfect tense is used to convey the idea of repeated visits to the beach.
- Elle aimait écouter de la musique classique avant de dormir.
- She liked to listen to classical music before sleeping
Explanation: Elle aimait describes a habitual action or a preference in the past. The imperfect tense is used to express her ongoing enjoyment of listening to classical music before going to sleep.
In the examples above, you can see that even if there is a time reference. For example, ‘during the summer holidays’ is referenced. But this still is not exact enough to indicate clearly that the event has been completed. So you still use the imperfect tense because the reference is not clearly defined, like for example ‘this morning’, as in the example below.
Examples with the Passé Composé
- J’ai mangé une pomme ce matin
- I ate an apple this morning.
Explanation: In this sentence, j’ai mangé (I ate) is in the passé composé tense. It indicates a specific action (eating an apple) that occurred and was completed in the past (this morning).
- Elle a terminé ses devoirs hier soir.
- She finished her homework last night.
Elle a terminé (She finished) is in the passé composé tense, indicating the completion of an action (finishing her homework) in the past (last night).
- Nous sommes allés au cinéma la semaine dernière.
- We went to the movies last week.
Nous sommes allés (We went) is in the passé composé tense. It’s formed with the auxiliary verb être (to be) and the past participle allés (gone). In this case, the specific actions or events that occurred were completed in the past (going to the movies last week).
Summing up, you can see how the last three examples with the Passé Composé have a clearly defined window in which the action or event was completed. This differs from the Imperfect tense in which also a time can be referenced