‘Comme j’ai toujours eu du mal avec les maths...’ ‘As I’ve always had a struggle with math...’
I think that ‘always’ indicates a continued and repetitive sense so why is the verb not in the imparfait?
Thank.
‘Comme j’ai toujours eu du mal avec les maths...’ ‘As I’ve always had a struggle with math...’
I think that ‘always’ indicates a continued and repetitive sense so why is the verb not in the imparfait?
Thank.
From an English point of view, I would say the tense used indicates whether the situation ended or is ongoing. In English it would be,
"I've always struggled with maths" = this was true in the past and is still true - I continue to struggle with it
whereas the use of the imperfect would be:
"I always struggled (I always used to struggle) with maths" = I don't struggle with it now / I'm no longer in that situation (either because you got better at it, or you simply don't have to do maths anymore!)
Perhaps one of our French experts can confirm if this matches the meaning difference in French?
Don't have an account yet? Join today
Test your French to the CEFR standard
Find your French level