Passé Composé vs Imparfait

The two simple French past tenses split English's single past tense between them. The rules are clear once you have them.

The decision rules

composé for:

Completed events in a closed time frame (hier, la semaine dernière, en 2020)
Actions with a specified duration that has ended (j'ai travaillé deux heures, j'ai vécu là cinq ans)
A single event, or a sequence of events forming a narrative
The interrupting event in a "while X was happening, Y happened" structure
Sudden changes of state (j'ai eu peur, il s'est mis à pleuvoir)

Imparfait for:

Habitual or repeated actions (every day, every Sunday, used to)
Ongoing past actions ("was X-ing")
Background description (the scene, the weather, ages, time of day)
Mental and emotional states (savoir, vouloir, penser, croire as background states)
The interrupted action in a "while X was happening, Y happened" structure

Time markers as triggers

Triggers passé composé	Triggers imparfait



l'
2020
y a	j'
	à
/ à	d'

If one of these markers appears, the tense choice is mostly decided. When neither appears, you decide by context.

Side-by-side examples

Passé composé	Imparfait	Notes
, j' pizza.	mangeais pizza .	One occasion vs habit
J' à .	J' à j' .	Bounded duration vs background
cinéma .	J' cinéma .	One event vs habit
à .	arrivé, téléphone.	Bounded events vs the ongoing one
a .	.	Closed past vs setting the scene
J' (bought and sold).	J' (the one I owned).	Bounded ownership vs ongoing state

The interruption pattern

A characteristic French past-tense structure: imparfait for the ongoing background action, passé composé for the event that interrupts it.

arrivé, . (When I arrived, Marie was sleeping.)
ma , téléphone a . (While I was talking with my mother, the phone rang.)
l' s' . (I was taking a shower when the water cut off.)

The imparfait sets the stage; the passé composé delivers the event. This is the bedrock structure of French narration.

States vs events: the verb shift

A small group of common verbs shifts meaning between the two tenses. Worth memorising as a set.

Verb	Imparfait (state)	Passé composé (event)
	= I knew (a fact)	j' = I found out, learnt
	= I knew (someone)	j' = I met (for the first time)
	= I wanted	j' = I tried, decided to
	= I could	j' = I managed to
	j' = I had (state)	j' = I got, received
	= I was supposed to	j' = I had to (and did)

Examples:

J' ma 2010. (I met my wife in 2010 - the event.)
l'. (I'd known Marie since school - the ongoing state.)
J' . (I found out the truth yesterday - moment of finding out.)
. (I had known the truth for months - state.)
J' . (I decided to leave / I tried to leave.)
. (I wanted to leave - ongoing wish.)

These distinctions don't translate cleanly. French is doing semantic work in the choice of tense.

Worked examples

L' , Italie j' Rome. (Last year I went to Italy and visited Rome.) - bounded passé composé chain
j' , ma à . (When I was little, my family and I used to go to the beach every summer.) - habitual imparfait
. (Marie was cooking dinner when I came home.) - imparfait + passé composé
restaurant . (The restaurant was full and it was very hot.) - background imparfait
J' à à j' à onze . (I started studying at eight and finished at eleven.) - bounded passé composé
téléphone a , . (When the phone rang, I was deeply asleep.) - interruption

Common mistakes English speakers make

Defaulting to passé composé for everything because it feels closer to English simple past. Imparfait covers habitual and ongoing past, and missing it is the surest marker of an English-speaking learner. Conversely, using imparfait for a bounded event because the duration is long: j' à is passé composé (bounded duration, ended), not imparfait. And missing the meaning-shifting verbs - j' and are genuinely different sentences and shouldn't be used interchangeably.

Hier soir, je un film. (regarder)
Je un film tous les soirs. (regarder)
Quand je suis arrivé, Marie au téléphone. (parler)
Pendant que je parlais avec ma mère, mon père . (entrer)
Il faisait nuit et la ville calme. (être)
L'année dernière, je en ville. (aller)
Tous les matins, j' de la musique. (écouter)
Ce matin, mon frère à dix heures. (arriver)
Quand j'étais jeune, je souvent en ville. (jouer)
Pendant que je dormais, ma mère . (rentrer)

Fill in the blank

0/10

Put the verb in brackets into the tense named in the hint, conjugated for the subject given. Mind the accents.

Quand mon père est entré, je . (dormir) (imparfait - ongoing background action)
Hier soir, je en ville. (aller) (passé composé - one bounded event)
Quand j'étais petit, ma famille en ville chaque jour. (aller) (imparfait - habitual action)
Marie quand je suis rentré. (dormir) (imparfait - the interrupted action)
J' à travailler à trois heures. (commencer) (passé composé - bounded event at a set time)
À ce moment, il une voiture. (avoir) (imparfait - ongoing state)
Tous les soirs, je un film. (regarder) (imparfait - habitual action)
Hier, nous en ville. (aller) (passé composé - one bounded event)
Quand elle petite, elle habitait à Paris. (être) (imparfait - the background setting)
Ce matin, mon père à cinq heures. (commencer) (passé composé - bounded event at a set time)

Translation drill

0/9

Translate into French, choosing the passé composé for completed events and the imparfait for habitual, ongoing or background actions.

Yesterday evening, I watched a film.
I used to go to town every day.
Marie was sleeping when I came home.
It was night and the town was calm.
When my father came in, I was sleeping.
Last year, I worked in town.
Every evening, my mother used to watch a film.
This morning, I started at ten o'clock.
When I was young, I used to play in town.

Frequently asked questions

What is the easiest way to choose between passé composé and imparfait?

Ask whether the action is bounded. If it has a clear start and end in the past (yesterday, last week, in 2010, for two hours, suddenly), use passé composé: hier, j'ai mangé une pizza. If it's habitual, ongoing, or background description with no end specified (every day, while, when I was young, used to), use imparfait: je mangeais une pizza tous les dimanches. The same English sentence can map onto either depending on context. 'I ate pizza' could be 'j'ai mangé une pizza' (one specific occasion) or 'je mangeais de la pizza' (used to, repeatedly).

Which past tense does French use for descriptions and states?

Imparfait, almost always. Descriptions of the setting (il faisait froid, la maison était grande), descriptions of people (elle était jeune et belle), states (j'avais peur, il était fatigué, je voulais partir), age (j'avais dix ans), time (il était minuit), weather (il pleuvait) all take imparfait. The exception is when the state has a clear bounded start - 'j'ai eu peur quand le chien a aboyé' (I got scared when the dog barked) uses passé composé because 'getting scared' is a moment, not an ongoing state.