Use the passé composé for what happened, one finished event after another. Use the imparfait for the setting around those events: the weather, how people felt, what was going on and what used to happen regularly.
This is the most useful pair in past and future meaning. It decides whether a short story in a writing task reads as a clear account or as a flat list of verbs.
What is the difference between the two tenses?
Picture a film. The imparfait is the camera showing the scene. The passé composé is the action that happens in front of the camera.
| Question to ask | If yes | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Did it happen once and finish? | passé composé | Il a ouvert la porte. |
| Does it move the story to the next moment? | passé composé | Nous sommes arrivés à midi. |
| Is it weather, age, time of day or appearance? | imparfait | Il faisait beau. Elle avait douze ans. |
| Is it a feeling or state with no clear start or end? | imparfait | J’étais content. |
| Did it happen repeatedly in the past? | imparfait | Chaque samedi, je jouais au foot. |
| Was it going on when something interrupted it? | imparfait, then passé composé | Je lisais quand tu as téléphoné. |
How are the two tenses formed?
Passé composé: present of avoir or être, plus the past participle. For example, j’ai mangé, elle est arrivée. The verbs that take être include aller, venir, partir, arriver, sortir and all reflexive verbs.
Imparfait: take the nous form of the present, remove -ons, add the endings. Nous prenons gives je prenais. Nous faisons gives il faisait. Être is the exception: j’étais.
Worked example
Turn these notes into a short account in French.
Notes: Last Saturday. Rain. I was bored at home. A friend (Karim) phoned. He invited me to the shopping centre. I took an umbrella. We went there.
Step 1, sort the notes. Rain, being bored: scene and feeling, so the imparfait. Phoned, invited, took, went: events in order, so the passé composé.
Step 2, build each verb. Pleuvoir gives il pleuvait. S’ennuyer gives je m’ennuyais. The events become a téléphoné, a invité, ai pris and sommes allés.
Step 3, join with link words.
Samedi dernier, il pleuvait et je m’ennuyais à la maison. Tout à coup, mon ami Karim a téléphoné. Il m’a invité au centre commercial, donc j’ai pris mon parapluie et nous y sommes allés.
Step 4, check the pattern. Two background verbs open the account. Then one interruption, tout à coup, switches the story to events. This scene-then-action rhythm works for most short accounts.
The mistake to watch for
A common slip is to put every past verb into the imparfait because “it is all in the past”.
Mistaken answer: Samedi dernier, il pleuvait et je m’ennuyais. Mon ami téléphonait. Il m’invitait. J’allais au centre commercial.
Nothing moves forward. The reader never learns what actually happened.
The correction is to give each event its own passé composé and keep the imparfait for the scene.
Corrected: Samedi dernier, il pleuvait et je m’ennuyais. Mon ami a téléphoné. Il m’a invité. Je suis allé au centre commercial.
The opposite error also appears: writing il a plu when you only mean the weather was rainy that day. If it is the backdrop, choose the imparfait.
Check yourself
1. Complete: Il (faire) froid, donc j’(mettre) mon manteau.
Show answer
The weather is background, so the imparfait. Putting on the coat is an event, so the passé composé: Il faisait froid, donc j’ai mis mon manteau.
2. Complete: Ma sœur (lire) quand le téléphone (sonner).
Show answer
Reading was in progress, so the imparfait. The ringing interrupted it, so the passé composé: Ma sœur lisait quand le téléphone a sonné.
3. Complete: Quand j’étais petite, nous (aller) chaque été chez ma grand-mère.
Show answer
Chaque été is a repeated habit in the past. The nous form allons gives the stem all-: nous allions chaque été chez ma grand-mère.
Where this leads next
Next, look forward with expressing a realistic future intention, or revisit the time-phrase lesson if the tense frame still needs work. The integrated practice set mixes both.
Many students need to hear the story out loud before the contrast feels natural. Online one-to-one French tuition lets a teacher ask you to retell an event and then adjust the verbs with you in real time.