French guides · Grammar made simple
Imparfait vs passé composé: one is a photo, one is a video clip.
The passé composé tells you what happened — a completed event with a beginning and an end: je suis allé(e) (I went), j’ai mangé (I ate). The imparfait paints what was going on — the background, a description, a habit: j’allais (I used to go), je mangeais (I was eating). Picture a camera. The passé composé is the snapshot of the event; the imparfait is the film that was already running behind it.
Which tense, at a glance
Before any rules, here is the whole decision in one table. Nearly every past sentence you will need falls into one of these five shapes.
| Situation | Tense | Example (translation) |
|---|---|---|
| A completed one-off event | passé composé | J’ai vu Marie hier. (I saw Marie yesterday.) |
| A habit in the past | imparfait | Je voyais Marie tous les jours. (I used to see Marie every day.) |
| Description or setting | imparfait | Il pleuvait et j’étais fatigué(e). (It was raining and I was tired.) |
| A chain of events | passé composé | Je me suis levé(e), j’ai pris un café, je suis parti(e). (I got up, had a coffee, left.) |
| “Was …-ing” interrupted | both | Je lisais quand tu as appelé. (I was reading when you called.) |
Notice what the two tenses are really doing in that last row. The reading has no edges — it was simply going on, so it takes the imparfait. The phone call is a single point in time, so it takes the passé composé. That is the whole distinction, and the rest of this guide is just practice at seeing it.
One thing worth saying early, because it trips up almost every learner: the same event can take either tense. It depends on what you mean, not on the verb. J’ai mangé au restaurant means I ate at the restaurant — once, done. Je mangeais au restaurant means I used to eat at the restaurant, or I was eating there when something else happened. Same verb, two different pictures.
The signal words
Certain words show up again and again next to one tense. They are the fastest shortcut you have while your ear is still forming.
Imparfait magnets — anything that means repeated, ongoing, or scene-setting: tous les jours (every day), souvent (often), toujours (always), chaque été (every summer), pendant que (while), quand j’étais petit(e) (when I was little), d’habitude (usually).
Passé composé magnets — anything that pins the action to a moment or moves the story forward: hier (yesterday), soudain (suddenly), tout à coup (all of a sudden), une fois (once), ce matin (this morning), puis (then), ensuite (next).
Be honest with yourself about what these are, though: strong hints, not laws. Hier normally sits next to a passé composé, but hier, il pleuvait (yesterday it was raining) is perfectly good French, because rain there is a description, not an event. When a signal word and the meaning disagree, the meaning wins every time.
The sentence that uses both
French loves a particular shape: something was going on, and then something cut into it. The ongoing part takes the imparfait; the thing that cuts in takes the passé composé. Once you can hear this pattern, half of French storytelling opens up.
Il dormait quand le téléphone a sonné. — He was sleeping when the phone rang. The sleeping was already underway, with no start and no end in view. The ring is a single moment that lands inside it.
Nous marchions dans la rue quand il a commencé à pleuvoir. — We were walking down the street when it started to rain. Same shape again: the walking is the film, the first drops are the snapshot.
Here is the tell that works almost every time, and it is in your own language. If the English is “was” or “were” plus an “-ing” verb — I was reading, he was sleeping, we were walking — that half is the imparfait. If the English is a plain simple past that names one event — you called, the phone rang, it started — that half is the passé composé. Translate the shape of the sentence, not just the words.
When the tense changes the meaning
A small group of very common verbs does something sneaky: swapping the tense does not just change the camera angle, it changes what the verb means. You do not need this to speak — but you will meet it in books and films, and it is satisfying once you see it.
Je savais = I knew, but j’ai su = I found out. Je connaissais = I knew someone, but j’ai connu = I met them. Je voulais = I wanted to, but j’ai voulu = I tried, I insisted. Je pouvais = I was able to, but j’ai pu = I managed it. The pattern behind all four: the imparfait describes a state you were in, and the passé composé marks the moment it turned into an action. File this one under B1 curiosity, not beginner homework.
How each one is built
The imparfait is the friendlier of the two to build, because there is essentially one exception in the whole language. Take the nous form of the present tense, drop the -ons, and add -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient. So nous parlons gives you je parlais; nous finissons gives you je finissais. The single verb that refuses is être, which goes its own way: j’étais.
The passé composé takes two pieces instead of one: avoir or être in the present tense, plus the past participle. Most verbs use avoir — j’ai parlé, j’ai vu. A short list of movement verbs and all reflexive verbs use être instead, and there the participle agrees with the subject: je suis allé if you are male, je suis allée if you are female.
If you would rather hear this than read it, the Cocoon French video on the two past tenses walks through the same rule with spoken examples: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hgT0Ib0HP8
Hear it, then say it
Reading about French isn’t speaking French.
Cocoon French teaches through slow, visual stories you understand from the first line — and a free Club account includes full lessons plus a speaking drill that listens to you say the French out loud and tells you how you did. No card required.
Quick answers
Two past tenses, answered.
The questions learners actually ask about the imparfait and the passé composé.