Passé composé vs Imparfait

DavidB1Kwiziq community member

Passé composé vs Imparfait

Stéphane est arrivé à l'heure à l'école

vs

Tu étais en retard ce matin!

Hello!

Why use PC in the first sentence and then IMP in the second? Why were these tenses used?



Asked 4 years ago
ChrisC1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor Correct answer

That's a good question. It has to do with verbs of state (les verbes d'état) which usually go with the imparfait, since they describe a more timeless state of being rather than an action. Here is more on them on kwiziq: https://kwiziq.learnfrenchwithalexa.com/questions/view/what-are-verbes-d-etat-s-il-vous-plait

A more complete list can be found on the internet if you use google.

Passé composé vs Imparfait

Stéphane est arrivé à l'heure à l'école

vs

Tu étais en retard ce matin!

Hello!

Why use PC in the first sentence and then IMP in the second? Why were these tenses used?



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