French · Chapter 9 · Lesson 15 · Grammar primer
Passe compose vs imparfait: which one when
Bounded specific event = passe compose. Habitual / ongoing / background = imparfait. The interruption pattern, the decision rules, and the verbs that shift meaning between the two.
The short version
Imparfait sets the stage, passé composé acts
The bedrock of French narration is one sentence carrying both tenses. The ongoing background goes in the imparfait and the event that cuts across it goes in the passé composé. Quand je suis arrivé, Marie dormait: my arrival is the event, her sleeping is the scenery.
Quand je suis arrivé, Marie dormait.
Some verbs change meaning with the tense
A handful of common verbs mean different things in each past tense, and that is semantic work, not style. Je connaissais Marie is I knew her; j'ai connu Marie is I met her. Je savais is I knew, j'ai su is I found out. Vouloir, pouvoir, avoir and devoir all shift the same way.
J'ai connu ma femme en 2010.
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