What are the differences between the French ‘imparfait’ and ‘passé composé’?
Le passé composé(perfect tense) and l’imparfait(imperfect) are two major past tenses in French. Broadly, le passé composé is used to talk about a moment in the past, while l’imparfait is used to talk about longer, more continuous past actions. But as you’ll see, it’s not quite as simple as that!
Ever wondered what is the difference between j’ai fait(I did)and je faisais(I used to do)? Or why we say, Tous les samedis, je jouais au tennis, sauf une fois où j’ai joué au handball?(Every Saturday, I played tennis, except once when I played handball. 🤾 ) This post contains all the answers you need!
Before you start, it will help to review the forms of le passé composé and l’imparfait.
What are the major differences between ‘le passé composé’ and ‘l’imparfait’?
When it comes to choosing between l’imparfait and le passé composé, you can’t entirely rely on translation because, as you can see in my example below, the past in English has different equivalents in French.
J’ai aimé le film. / J’aimais le film.
I liked the movie.
A better and safer option is to rely on the context. The table below summarizes in which situations you should use each tense:
Imparfait | Passé composé |
|---|---|
Incomplete, ongoing action in the past, without a specific beginning or an end. Quand j’étais jeune, je jouais à cache-cache. When I was young, I used to play hide and seek. In the above example, the action is likely to be happening over a period of several years, during my childhood, but we don’t know exactly when I started or stopped playing hide and seek. In fact, we don’t need to know! | The event or action began and/or ended at a specific moment in the past. Ils sont allés en vacances en France du 17 au 31 août. They went to France on holiday from August 17 to August 31. In the above example, we know exactly when the action started and ended: from August 17th to August 31st. |
Habit or repeated action in the past: for things you used to do regularly. Tous les dimanches, on rendait visite à mes grands-parents. Every Sunday, we used to visit my grandparents. “Every Sunday” shows clearly that this was a recurring event. | Single event in the past: something that has happened only once, at a specific time. Dimanche dernier, j’ai rendu visite à mes grands-parents. Last Sunday, I visited my grandparents. It is clear that the action took place on that specific Sunday only. À 17h, il est sorti du bureau et à 17h09, il est monté dans le bus. At 5 pm, he came out of the office and at 5:09 pm, he got on the bus. |
Set the scene, give background information, make a description in the past: explain what was happening, what people were doing, how old they were, what the weather was like, describe the scenery, what a place looked like, express the time of the day, etc. This is the equivalent of the English “to be + verb -ing” in the past. Il faisait très chaud, les touristes commençaient à faire la queue devant la porte du musée, les enfants s’impatientaient, et pendant que j’attendais, je lisais un livre. It was very hot, tourists started queuing in front of the museum door, children were getting impatient, and while I was waiting, I was reading my book. | An event that occurs suddenly in the past, interrupting the ongoing action. Tout à coup, mon chien Jack a aboyé ! All of a sudden, my dog Jack barked! Soudain, elle s’est levée pour prendre la parole. Suddenly, she got up to take the floor. |
General physical description, or a mental state of being. Quand j’étais étudiant, j’avais les cheveux longs. When I was a student, I had long hair. Emilie était un bébé heureux. Emily was a happy baby. | Sudden physical change or sudden mental state change. Avant-hier, je me suis fait couper les cheveux très court. The day before yesterday, I had my hair cut very short. À ce moment-là, elle est entrée dans une colère noire ! At that moment, she became very angry. |
Have you spotted the time expressions in the examples above? They play an important role in the choice of tense you need to make. Take a look at this list of time phrases in French that will help you decide between le passé composé and l’imparfait.
Following what we have just seen, you must realize that the tense you choose to use will impact the meaning you give to your sentence. Let’s have a look at a few examples:
Hier, il neigeait.
Yesterday, it was snowing.
Hier il neigeait alors le directeur a fermé l'école.
Yesterday it was snowing, so the headteacher closed the school.
Hier, il a neigé.
Yesterday, it snowed.
Using the imperfect could mean that this is a habit in the past. Something could happen, for example, every morning. Let’s seen another example:
Je mettais mon manteau et je prenais mon sac.
I would put my coat on and I would take my bag
or
I used to put on my coat and take my bag.
Or, in the sentence above, I could be setting the scene:
Je mettais mon manteau et je prenais mon sac.
I was putting my coat on and taking my bag.
And at this point you expect something else to happen (single action in the passé composé), for example:
Quand, tout à coup, la porte arrière a claqué .
When, all of a sudden, the backdoor slammed.
Now let’s contrast this example using the passé composé:
J’ai mis mon manteau et j’ai pris mon sac.
I put my coat on and I took my bag.
Using the passé composé means that this is not a recurring event, but something you did at a specific moment in time. For example:
Le taxi est arrivé alors j'ai mis mon manteau et j’ai pris mon sac.
The taxi arrived, so I put on my coat and took my bag.
Are you ready for some practice with the imperfect and passé composé?
How should I use the ‘passé composé’ and the ‘imparfait’ alongside each other?
As you have seen in some examples above, sometimes you’ll want to use both the passé composé and the imparfait in the same sentence to discuss interrupted past actions or to narrate in the past tense. Let’s take a look:
For past actions that were interrupted
Let’s look closely at this sentence:
Je m’asseyais à mon bureau,
I was sitting at my desk
quand, tout à coup,
when suddenly,
tu es entrée !
you came in.
This is a good example of how to use both tenses together in the same sentence. The same principle can be applied to entire paragraphs and stories!
Here are a few more examples:
passé composéimparfaitLe chat est entré dans la pièce alors que je passais la serpillère.
The cat entered the room while I was mopping the floor.
imparfait passé composéEn général, j’allais au lycée en train . Mais une année, il y a eu une grève de train, alors mon père m’y a emmené en voiture.
Usually, I used to go to high school by train. But one year, there was a train strike, so my dad had to take me there by car.
For narration in the past
Now let’s go beyond single sentences. Check out what Jamel did yesterday morning; can you guess why Jamel uses the passé composé here? Because he is describing a timeline of events that occurred at a specific moment in the past: hier(yesterday).
passé composéHier matin, je me suis levé à 6h30. J’ai pris un café et me suis installé sur mon balcon, mais je n’ai rien mangé. Ensuite, j’ai pris ma douche, je me suis rasé et j’ai mis mon costume gris porte bonheur. Puis je suis sorti et j’ai pris la ligne 5 du métro en direction de la Porte d’Italie. Je suis arrivé pour mon entretien d’embauche à 8h40.
Yesterday morning, I got up at 6:30. I had a coffee and sat on my balcony, but I didn't eat anything. Then I took a shower, shaved, and put on my lucky gray suit. Then I went out and took the metro line 5 towards Porte d'Italie. I arrived for my job interview at 8:40.
The above narration is very basic. Let’s see how we can make this more interesting by adding some background information and descriptions using the imperfect.
passé composéimparfaitHier matin, je me suis levé à 6h30. Dehors, il y avait déjà du soleil. J’ai pris un café et me suis installé sur mon balcon, mais je n’ai rien mangé parce que je me sentais trop stressé. Ensuite, j’ai pris ma douche mais pas longtemps parce que l’eau était un peu froide. J’ai mis mon costume gris porte bonheur. Puis je suis sorti et j’ai pris la ligne 5 du métro en direction de la Porte d’Italie. Il y avait déjà beaucoup de monde dans ma rame. Je suis arrivé pour mon entretien d’embauche à 8h40.
Yesterday morning, I got up at 6:30. It was already sunny outside. I had a coffee and sat on my balcony, but I didn't eat anything because I was feeling too stressed. Then I took a shower, but not for long because the water was a bit cold. I put on my lucky gray suit. Then I went out and took the metro line 5 towards Porte d'Italie. There were already a lot of people on my train. I arrived for my job interview at 8:40.
Open any French novel and you will see many examples of this. You can practice the passé composé and imparfait here with an excerpt of l’Etranger, by Albert Camus. Can you identify each tense?
Before finishing, it is worth noting that a handful of verbs will change their meaning if they are conjugated in the passé composé or the imperfect.
Let’s recap the main points
When deciding between the imparfait and the passé composé, keep the following points in mind:
L’imparfait is used for actions that have no clear beginning or end, for ongoing events, for habits and recurring events, and to make descriptions and set the scene.
Le passé composé is for events that have a specific beginning and end, to make a chronology of events, and for single events that happen suddenly.
You can easily use both together in a sentence with the imperfect setting of the scene and the perfect tense giving the details of completed or sudden events in the past.
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