Passé Composé of être
- « Back to Q&A Forum
- « Previous questionNext question »
White L.Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor
Passé Composé of être
I thought Etre is typically imparfait because it expresses a state of being or background information. "L'accueil du public a été bouleversant." Why is this verb in this sentence PC? Merci!
This question relates to:French dictation exercise "Entretien avec une chanteuse"
Asked 5 years ago
You are correct that être, being a verb of state, is mostly used in imperfect tense when talking about the past. A state, after all, is something that has a duration, a temporal extent.
But when you use être to refer to a "point" event in the past, you use it in the passé composé. The example talks about the reception of the public, which the speaker regards as a point event and hence uses the passé composé.
Don't have an account yet? Join today
Ask a question
Find your French level for FREE
Test your French to the CEFR standard
Find your French level