Imperfect
Quand j'avais 15 ans, je voulais être psychiatre. Je m'intéressais à la psychologie parce que je connaissais beaucoup de gens très bizarres. Le week-end, j'allais à la bibliothèque et j'étudiais pendant toute la journée.
When I was 15, I wanted to be a psychiatrist. I was interested in psychology because I knew a lot of really weird people. On the weekends, I used to go to the library and study all day.
Passé composé
Un jour, je suis tombé malade et j'ai découvert les miracles de la médecine. J'ai fait la connaissance d'un médecin et j'ai commencé à étudier avec lui. Quand la faculté de médecine m'a accepté, je n'ai plus pensé à la psychologie.
One day, I got sick and discovered the wonders of medicine. I met a doctor and started studying with him. After the medical school accepted me, I didn't think about psychology any more.
Indicators
The following key words and phrases tend to be used with either the imperfect or the passé composé, so when you see any of them, you know which tense you need:
| Imperfect | Passé composé | ||
| chaque semaine, mois, année | every week, month, year | une semaine, un mois, un an | one week, month, year |
| le week-end | on the weekends | un week-end | one weekend |
| le lundi, le mardi... | on Mondays, on Tuesdays... | lundi, mardi... | on Monday, on Tuesday |
| tous les jours | every day | un jour | one day |
| le soir | in the evenings | un soir | one evening |
| toujours | always | soudainement | suddenly |
| normalement | usually | tout à coup, tout d'un coup | all of a sudden |
| d'habitude | usually | une fois, deux fois... | once, twice... |
| en général, généralement | in general, generally | enfin | finally |
| souvent | often | finalement | in the end |
| parfois, quelquefois | sometimes | plusieurs fois | several times |
| de temps en temps | from time to time | ||
| rarement | rarely | ||
| autrefois | formerly | ||
| Notes: Some French verbs are used primarily in the imperfect, while others have different meanings depending on which tense they are used in. Learn more about advanced past tenses. There is a third tense, the passé simple, which technically translates to the English simple past tense, but is now used primarily in writing, as the literary equivalent of the passé composé. | |||
| Test: Passé composé vs Imperfect | |||
