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Passé Composé and L'Imparfait - when do I use each?


Ian
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I thought I knew the difference..........

In the UK, I was taught to use the passé composé for "long duration/repetitive/descriptive/was ...ing/used to..." situations, and l'imparfait for "short discrete actions". For example "Je marchais dans un forêt, quand j'ai trouvé une truffe."

However, my french teacher says l'imparfait "...refers to a precise point in the past..." - a bit different from my understanding.

Can anyone help this poor confused boy?

Tx

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[quote user="Clair"]Try these to begin with:

[/quote]

Clair, many thanks for the quick and helful reply. In the first thread, there's a link to www.languageguide.org/francais/grammar, and they seem to bear me out

Passe Compose for actions that are complete

Imparfait for continuous/enduring/descriptive/...ing

I think I'll carry on using the tenses as they say.

Thanks

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[quote user="Ian"]I thought I knew the difference..........

In the UK, I was taught to use the passé composé for "long duration/repetitive/descriptive/was ...ing/used to..." situations, and l'imparfait for "short discrete actions". For example "Je marchais dans un forêt, quand j'ai trouvé une truffe."

However, my french teacher says l'imparfait "...refers to a precise point in the past..." - a bit different from my understanding.

Can anyone help this poor confused boy?

Tx

[/quote]

The sentence you quote "Je marchais dans un forêt, quand j'ai trouvé une truffe." illustrates the opposite of the 'rule' you state.

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[quote user="NormanH"]

The sentence you quote "Je marchais dans un forêt, quand j'ai trouvé une truffe." illustrates the opposite of the 'rule' you state.

[/quote]

Whoops!

Yes, I have the names the wrong way round. I meant to say, PC for discrete, completed actions, imparfait for descriptive/continuing/...ing actions.

Thanks for pointing this out.

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Worth remembering that in English you can use what appears to be the simple past to describe repeated actions in the past - eg "when I was younger I ate corn flakes every day." This would have to be translated as "je mangeais" in French.
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[quote user="Ian"]In the UK, I was taught to use the passé composé for "long duration/repetitive/descriptive/was ...ing/used to..." situations, and l'imparfait for "short discrete actions".[/quote]I agree with NormanH; this is exactly the wrong way round.  Unfortunately what your teacher says doesn't help:

[quote]l'imparfait "...refers to a precise point in the past..." - [/quote]Le 30 juin à 9 heures du matin je marchais dans la forêt...

Le 30 juin à 9 heures du matin j'ai trouvé une truffe...

Both are correct.

I think if you reverse the first "rule" you get quite a good summary.

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