In Dutch you can use the past tense forms fairly arbitrarily. But not in French. When do you use the simple past tense (l’imparfait) and when do you use the past perfect (pass\u00e9 compos\u00e9)?<\/p>\n
In short: you use the passe compos\u00e9 for movements or events and the imparfait for stills and descriptions.<\/p>\n
More precisely: you use the pass\u00e9 compos\u00e9 to tell what happened in the past or what someone did. You answer the question ‘And then?’
There can be multiple actions (something happened, and then something else happened). Or if you want to say that something has changed.<\/p>\n
It is important in the pass\u00e9 compos\u00e9 that it always concerns a closed event: the beginning and end are clear.<\/p>\n
J’ai dormi pendant la r\u00e9union.
(I slept during the meeting.)<\/p>\n
Je suis arriv\u00e9 chez moi cet apr\u00e8s-midi. Ensuite, j’ai racont\u00e9 \u00e0 ma m\u00e8re ce qui s’\u00e9tait pass\u00e9.
(I came home this afternoon. Then I told my mom what happened.)<\/p>\n
Soudain, j’ai gliss\u00e9 sur une peau de banane.
(Suddenly I slipped on a banana peel.)<\/p>\n
describes what it was like in the past: an action that is still going on, a habit or a fact or a condition. So for example with memories, or with descriptions).<\/p>\n
Quand j’\u00e9tais jeune, je jouais au tennis tous les \u00e9t\u00e9s.
(When I was young I played tennis every summer)<\/p>\n
Comme d’habitude, je me r\u00e9veillais, je mangeais une tartine et je buvais un verre de th\u00e9.
(As usual, I got up, had a sandwich, and had a glass of tea.)<\/p>\n
Signal words for the pass\u00e9 compos\u00e9:
alors (then) – apr\u00e9s (afterwards) – ensuite (afterwards) – puis (then) – soudain (suddenly) – tout \u00e0 coup (suddenly) – tout de suite (immediately)<\/p>\n
Signal words for the imparfait:
autrefois (used to be) – pendant que (while) – quelquefois (sometimes) – souvent (often) – toujours (always)<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″ _builder_version=”3.19.13″][et_pb_sidebar area=”sidebar-1″ _builder_version=”3.22.7″][\/et_pb_sidebar][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In Dutch you can use the past tense forms fairly arbitrarily. But not in French. When do you use the simple past tense (l’imparfait) and when do you use the past perfect (pass\u00e9 compos\u00e9)? In short: you use the passe compos\u00e9 for movements or events and the imparfait for stills and descriptions. pass\u00e9 compos\u00e9 More […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4384,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n