passé composé - Petal School District

© 2015 by Vista Higher Learning, Inc. All rights reserved. 8A.2-1
Point de départ
You have already seen some uses of the passé composé
versus the imparfait while talking about things and events
in the past. Here are some other contexts in which the
choice of the tense you use is important.

© 2015 by Vista Higher Learning, Inc. All rights reserved. 8A.2-2
The passé composé and the imparfait are often
used together to narrate a story or an incident. In
such cases, the imparfait is usually used to set the
scene or the background while the passé composé
moves the story along.

© 2015 by Vista Higher Learning, Inc. All rights reserved. 8A.2-3

© 2015 by Vista Higher Learning, Inc. All rights reserved. 8A.2-4

© 2015 by Vista Higher Learning, Inc. All rights reserved. 8A.2-5
When the passé composé and the imparfait occur in the
same sentence, the action in the passé composé often
interrupts the ongoing action in the imparfait.