J’ai mangé à huit heures.
I ate at eight.
One finished event at a known moment.
English / Français
Past tenses
English “I ate” can use either French past tense. Use the passé composé for a completed event, and the imparfait for an ongoing situation, habit, or description in the past. The timelines below show the difference.
Event or background
passé composé: a finished event, drawn as a dot or a closed barimparfait: ongoing or repeated, drawn as an open band
Je mangeais quand Luc a téléphoné.
I was eating when Luc called.
The imparfait describes what was in progress. The passé composé gives the event that happened during it.
Le dimanche, je mangeais chez ma grand-mère.
On Sundays I used to eat at my grandmother’s.
A habit, repeated an uncounted number of times.
Il faisait froid et il pleuvait.
It was cold and it was raining.
Description: weather, feelings, how things were. The start and end are not stated.
J’ai vécu à Paris pendant deux ans.
I lived in Paris for two years.
The two years are presented as a completed whole, with a start and an end, so it takes the passé composé.
J’habitais à Paris.
I was living in Paris. I used to live in Paris.
No length stated. It describes a situation in the past, often as background to another event.
Words that point to each tense
passé composé
a counted or dated event
- hier, ce matin, à huit heures (yesterday, this morning, at eight)
- une fois, deux fois (once, twice)
- soudain, tout à coup (suddenly)
- pendant deux ans, toute la journée (for two years, all day): a period with a stated length
imparfait
a scene, a habit, a state
- pendant que (while)
- toujours, d’habitude, tous les jours, le lundi (always, usually, every day, on Mondays)
- quand j’étais petit (when I was little)
- Age, weather, time, feelings: j’avais dix ans, il faisait chaud, il était trois heures
These words are hints, not rules. English gives a hint too: “was eating” and “used to eat” normally correspond to the imparfait, while plain “ate” can be either.
Avoir or être
The passé composé is a helper verb plus a past participle: j’ai mangé, je suis parti. Most verbs take avoir. These verbs of movement or change of state take être, and so do their compounds, such as devenir and rentrer:
| Verb | Passé composé | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| aller | il est allé | to go |
| venir | il est venu | to come |
| arriver | il est arrivé | to arrive |
| partir | il est parti | to leave |
| entrer | il est entré | to go in |
| sortir | il est sorti | to go out |
| monter | il est monté | to go up |
| descendre | il est descendu | to go down |
| naître | il est né | to be born |
| mourir | il est mort | to die |
| rester | il est resté | to stay |
| tomber | il est tombé | to fall |
| retourner | il est retourné | to go back |
| passer | il est passé | to pass by |
| devenir | il est devenu | to become |
| revenir | il est revenu | to come back |
| rentrer | il est rentré | to come home |
- Every reflexive verb takes être: Je me suis levé (I got up), Nous nous sommes promenés (We went for a walk). See Reflexive verbs.
- Monter, descendre, sortir, rentrer, passer and retourner take avoir when they have a direct object: Je suis sorti (I went out), but J’ai sorti la poubelle (I took the bin out).
- English uses “have” for every verb (“I have gone”), so je suis allé can look odd at first. It never means “I am gone”.
When the participle agrees
The participle sometimes takes an ending like an adjective: -e for feminine, -s for plural. Most of the time the ending is only written, not heard.
- With être it agrees with the subject: Elle est partie. Ils sont arrivés. Elles sont venues.
- With avoir it does not agree with the subject: Elle a mangé. Ils ont fini.
- With avoir it agrees with a direct object that comes before the verb: Je l’ai vue (I saw her), les lettres que j’ai écrites (the letters I wrote). See Pronouns.
- A reflexive verb agrees when se is the direct object: Elle s’est levée. When a direct object follows, it does not: Elle s’est lavé les mains (She washed her hands).
Verbs whose meaning shifts
With savoir and connaître the tense changes the natural English translation. With vouloir, pouvoir and devoir the passé composé often implies that the action really happened, but that reading depends on context.
| Verb | Imparfait | Imparfait in English | Passé composé | Passé composé in English | How firm |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| savoir | je savais | I knew | j’ai su | I found out, I learned | clear shift |
| connaître | je connaissais | I knew (a person, a place) | j’ai connu | I got to know, I knew (for a time) | clear shift |
| vouloir | je voulais | I wanted to | j’ai voulu | I tried to, I wanted to (and acted on it) | tendency |
| pouvoir | je pouvais | I could, I was able to | j’ai pu | I managed to | tendency |
| devoir | je devais | I had to, I was supposed to | j’ai dû | I had to (and did), I must have | tendency |
In the negative, je n’ai pas voulu usually means “I refused”, and je n’ai pas pu means “I didn’t manage to”.
Imparfait forms
The imparfait is almost entirely regular. Take the nous form of the present, remove -ons, and add -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient.
| Person | parler | finir | prendre | être |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| je | parlais | finissais | prenais | étais |
| tu | parlais | finissais | prenais | étais |
| il / elle | parlait | finissait | prenait | était |
| nous | parlions | finissions | prenions | étions |
| vous | parliez | finissiez | preniez | étiez |
| ils / elles | parlaient | finissaient | prenaient | étaient |
Être is the only irregular stem: ét-. The endings -ais, -ait and -aient all sound the same. Verbs in -cer and -ger keep their soft sound before a: je commençais, je mangeais.
Novels and history books also use the passé simple for events: il mangea, elle partit. You need to recognise it when reading, but speech and everyday writing use the passé composé instead.