Plus que parfait vs imparfait
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You won’t get it right all the time unless you achieve fluency, and even then many non-native speakers still struggle.įortunately, using the incorrect tense will only rarely interfere with your ability to be understood by other French speakers, so we would suggest you make the best call that you can and move forward with your sentence.Ah, grammar. The decision over which past tense form to use when speaking or writing is an especially difficult one for English speakers. More common in imparfait: verbs of feeling, having, being, liking, hoping, knowing and thinking, among others.Įxamples: sembler, avoir, être, aimer, espérer, savoir, penser, etc. Some verbs are more common in imparfait form, so if you have to guess on the tense of these verbs, the imperfect tense is more likely. In other words, the event that was happening prior to the interruption is in imparfait, and the interrupting verb is in passé composé.Įxample: I was cleaning when I heard a voice → Je nettoyais quand j’ai entendu une voix Imparfait and passé composé patternsĪ sentence that describes what was taking place when a distinct event occurred is a common imparfait + passé composé pattern. If a specific time period is used to describe an event, or if it is a clearly one-time action that started and completed in the past, the verb should most likely be translated as passé composé. Passé composé is also used when describing repeated actions in the past, if they occurred a set number of times.Įxample: He ran ten times → Il a couru dix fois The primary time passé composé should be used is to describe distinct, singular actions that occurred in the past.Įxample: He swam yesterday → Il a nagé hier Imparfait can also be used to describe something that “used to” happen but no longer does.Įxample: We used to go to France → On allait en France. Sometimes imparfait should be understood to have either the idea of something happening in general, or that the word “often” or a close synonym is implied in the sentence.Įxample: He ran on Thursdays → Il courait le jeudi (note: le + is how habitual, weekly patterns are described in French) Other times (but not always), substituting “was” or “were” + VERB in English will be an accurate translation. If it a sentence describes how someone felt:Įxample: Tim wanted to leave → Tim voulait partir Sometimes, just a basic past tense translation into English will be sufficient. Describing how someone or something was or behaved in the past.Continual or ongoing actions in the past.When to use imparfaitĪs we explained in their respective lessons, the general rule is that imparfait is used for However, if a photo would not fully encompass the duration of the action, it is likely to be imparfait. In other words, if you imagine a certain action, could you capture it in fully in a picture? If you can, it is likely passé composé.
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Think of passé composé as a snapshot and imparfait as a video. Some of their uses will instinctively make sense to most English speakers and some uses might not. What is not used identically in English are the imperfect and passé composé tenses.
#Plus que parfait vs imparfait plus
Plus que parfait is the “past before the past” and is used almost identically in English. It’s generally easy for English speakers to know when the plus que parfait tense should be used (for example: “Before I arrived, she had already left ”). There are several past tense options in French, including passé composé, imparfait, and plus que parfait.