Passé Composé vs Imparfait: How to Choose in French
The passé composé tells what happened. The imparfait sets the scene and says what used to happen. Clear rules, trigger words, verbs that change meaning, and a quick self-test.
Learn FrenchFree app with audio, quizzes and real booksFrench has two main past tenses for everyday speech, and English speakers have to choose between them in nearly every sentence about the past. The short version: the passé composé reports events that happened and finished, and moves the story forward. The imparfait describes the background, what was going on and what used to happen, without caring when it ended.
The quick table
| Passé composé | Imparfait | |
|---|---|---|
| What it does | Reports a completed event | Describes the background or a habit |
| English often says | I ate, she arrived | I was eating, I used to eat |
| Single event | Hier, j'ai mangé une crêpe. (Yesterday I ate a crêpe.) | – |
| Habit | – | Enfant, je mangeais des crêpes le dimanche. (As a child I used to eat crêpes on Sundays.) |
| Ongoing action | – | Je mangeais quand le téléphone a sonné. (I was eating when the phone rang.) |
| Time, age, weather | – | Il était huit heures. J'avais dix ans. Il pleuvait. |
Use the passé composé for
A finished event at a specific time. Hier, j'ai appelé ma mère. (I called my mother yesterday.)
A series of events, one after another. Je me suis levé, j'ai pris une douche et je suis sorti. (I got up, showered and went out.) Each verb moves the story on.
Something that started or ended. Le film a commencé à neuf heures. (The film started at nine.)
A closed period of time. J'ai habité à Lyon pendant trois ans. (I lived in Lyon for three years.) The length doesn't matter: if the period is over and you're treating it as one block, use the passé composé.
Use the imparfait for
Habits and repeated actions in the past. L'été, nous allions toujours à la plage. (In summer we always went to the beach.) If English could say "used to" or "would", it's the imparfait.
Actions in progress. Je lisais un livre. (I was reading a book.)
Description and background. La maison était grande et avait un jardin. (The house was big and had a garden.)
Time, age and weather. Il était trois heures. Il faisait froid. (It was three o'clock. It was cold.)
Feelings and states of mind. J'étais fatigué et je ne voulais pas sortir. (I was tired and didn't want to go out.)
When both appear in one sentence
The most common pattern in storytelling: an action in progress (imparfait) gets interrupted by an event (passé composé).
- Je dormais quand tu es arrivé. (I was sleeping when you arrived.)
- Nous marchions dans le parc et soudain il a commencé à pleuvoir. (We were walking in the park and suddenly it started to rain.)
Think of a film: the imparfait is the scenery and the background music, the passé composé is what the characters actually do.
Trigger words
These words lean one way, though meaning always wins over the word list.
- Passé composé: hier, l'année dernière, soudain, tout à coup, une fois, en 2010
- Imparfait: toujours, tous les jours, souvent, d'habitude, quand j'étais petit, pendant que
Verbs that change meaning
A few verbs shift meaning between the two tenses. These are worth learning as pairs:
| Verb | Passé composé | Imparfait |
|---|---|---|
| connaître | J'ai connu Paul en 2015. I met Paul in 2015. | Je connaissais Paul. I knew Paul. |
| savoir | J'ai su la vérité. I found out the truth. | Je savais la vérité. I knew the truth. |
| vouloir | J'ai voulu t'appeler. I tried to call you. | Je voulais t'appeler. I wanted to call you. |
| pouvoir | J'ai pu finir. I managed to finish. | Je pouvais finir. I could finish (no word on whether I did). |
| avoir | J'ai eu peur. I got scared. | J'avais peur. I was scared. |
A word on avoir and être
The imparfait has one set of endings for every verb (-ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient), so it's the easier of the two to form. The passé composé needs a helper verb: most verbs take avoir (j'ai mangé), while verbs of movement and change of state such as aller, venir, arriver, partir, naître, mourir, plus all reflexive verbs, take être (je suis allé, elle s'est levée). Our passé composé lesson covers the full list and the agreement rules.
Test yourself
Choose the passé composé or the imparfait, then check below.
- Quand j'étais petit, je ___ (jouer) au foot tous les jours.
- Hier, j'___ (acheter) une nouvelle voiture.
- Il ___ (être) dix heures du soir.
- Pendant que je ___ (cuisiner), mon frère ___ (arriver).
- L'année dernière, nous ___ (voyager) au Canada.
- Ma grand-mère ___ (avoir) quatre-vingts ans.
Answers: 1. jouais (habit). 2. ai acheté (finished event). 3. était (time). 4. cuisinais, est arrivé (background, then interruption). 5. avons voyagé (finished event). 6. avait (age).
Keep going
Both tenses have their own lessons with conjugation tables and a quiz: the passé composé and the imparfait. If savoir and connaître still trip you up, see Savoir vs Connaître.
The choice gets easier the more stories you read, because you start to feel the difference between the scenery and the action. Our Learn French app takes you from vocabulary and grammar through graded reading to full classics with a translation under every line. It's free to download, though some books and extra content need diamonds you earn while learning, or Premium.