Imparfait vs Passé composé
Let's leave that confusion in the past!
Talking about the past - remembering old friends, recalling great parties, reminiscing about wonderful travels 👣 - is a lot of fun, but doing it in French can be stressful, thanks to the tricky relationship between the two most common French past tenses.
Today's issue of Lawless French à fond takes an in-depth look at the passé composé and imparfait to help you get "past" your fears. 😨
Table of Contents
Lessons
🎬 First things first: read over the standalone lessons, to get a sense of the uses for each of these past tenses.
Passé composé | Conjugations
👉 For completed actions, whether one time or repeated.
Imparfait | Conjugations
👉 For incomplete or ongoing actions, as well as descriptions and background information
OK, so while you can use these tenses alone, it's very, very common to use them together, which is why understanding how they differ is so important.
1) Introduction to passé composé vs imparfait, including side-by-side comparisons.
2) Some verbs are usually in the imperfect, and
3) A few verbs have different meanings depending on whether they're in the passé composé or imparfait.
4) Some words and phrases hint at which one you need in any given sentence.
Listening
Refine your understanding of the differences between passé composé and imparfait with these varied listening exercises.
Ma première rentrée des classes (A2)
Un samedi à Paris (A2)
🙋 A2 - B1 ?
These are 2 of the 6 CEFR proficiency levels.
Videos
C1 (advanced) listening and grammar practice.
Les cours d'anglais - Gad Elmaleh
Les origines du Tournoi des Six Nations
Quiz Time
See how you do with passé composé vs imparfait in these fill-in-the-blanks exercises.
Conseils pour économiser l'eau
Want one more? Try an old-school paper quiz, from my French Workbook for Dummies:
🖨️ PDF: Exercise only | Exercise with answer key
Writing
Put your passé composé vs imparfait savvy to the test along with your French translation skills in these writing exercises.
Weekend in Lyon (A2)
Trip to Paris (B1)
A nightmare journey (B2)
Juste pour rigoler
Comic courtesy of Malachi Ray Rempen, ItchyFeetComic.com
💗 Remerciements
Thanks for reading Lawless French à fond - see you again soon!
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