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Grammar
Objective: Distinguish background from event across multiple clauses, and choose the correct past tense in coordinated and subordinate structures.
| Role | Tense | Example | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| ongoing background | imparfait | Il pleuvait. | It was raining. |
| habitual action | imparfait | Nous allions au parc chaque dimanche. | We went to the park every Sunday. |
| state in the past | imparfait | Elle avait vingt ans. | She was twenty. |
| single completed event | passé composé | Il est arrivé à midi. | He arrived at noon. |
| sequence of events | passé composé | Elle a ouvert la porte et elle est entrée. | She opened the door and came in. |
| interrupting action | passé composé | Le téléphone a sonné. | The phone rang. |
The rain is already ongoing at the moment of arrival, so the imparfait pleuvait describes the backdrop, while suis arrivé marks the interrupting event.
Sortir takes être as auxiliary, while prendre takes avoir. The two participles belong to different auxiliary systems.
The imparfait sets the sleeping as an ongoing state, and the passé composé marks the ring as the interrupting event.
The rain is the backdrop, and the decision is a completed event. Rester takes être as auxiliary.
Both clauses describe simultaneous actions, so both take the imparfait. Pendant que marks the parallelism.
The arrival is the event in the passé composé, and the rain is the backdrop in the imparfait.
The residence is an ongoing state, and the decision is a bounded event. The two tenses divide the two roles cleanly.
7 exercises · about 11 minutes
When both clauses describe the same ongoing activity, both take the imparfait. The passé composé would frame one clause as a bounded event inside the frame.
The walk is the ongoing backdrop to the encounter, so it takes the imparfait. Quand introduces the event that interrupts the walk.
Soudain marks the beginning of the events, and both verbs take the passé composé. The reflexive verb takes être.
Both clauses describe ongoing states, so both take the imparfait. The main clause does not force a shift.
The main clause reports a statement in the passé composé, and the subordinate reports an ongoing condition at the moment of the statement in the imparfait.