French past tenses - Passé composé or Imparfait ...?

[crashthatragedy]

Hi guys! I'm new to the French language and I am having trouble differentiating between the passé composé and imparfait tenses. Is it possible for someone to explain when do you use which tense, in detail? For example, when writing a diary, or recounting certain events of the past, do you use passé composé or imparfait tense? Last question: is it

Comments

[clair_de_lune]

Maybe someone will think of something else or explain it better, but basically, you use imparfait for actions that are repetitive and/or last in time: Quand j'étais petit(e), j'allais à l'école. I went to school for several years, and it happened every day.

You use passé simple for occasional or short actions: Dimanche dernier, j'ai mangé au restaurant. It happened once, and it was last sunday.

You can have both in the same sentence obviously: Cher journal (you mentioned a diary;)), pendant que je me promenais, il a commencé à pleuvoir. Je suis rentré(e) à la maison et j'ai bu un thé pour me réchauffer.

is it true that passé composé is more commonly used?

I don't think so, it's rather that you use them for different purposes. But passé composé is more commonly used than passé simple (except in novels and such and even then, passé composé may be common enough in more recent works).

[paulistano]

The way that helped me understand the difference was that the imparfait is like a video , while the passé composé is like a photo. They're both in the past, but one is over a longer period of time while one is a fixed moment in time. It's a bit more sophisticated than that, but that really helped me get a grasp on it.

So, for example, the sentence "I was eating an apple when the phone rang." You could take a video of me eating an apple because it's a longer period of time (l'imparfait), then suddenly, the phone rang and then you could take a snapshot of me doing that one action that's over and done with (le passé composé).

So, "Je mangeais une pomme quand le télèphone a sonné"

[avec_bonheur]

^ Explain it well, I think. :)

One thing that helped me besides practice practice practice (like a verbal partner) was doing everyday things en français. Sometimes I would see if I could mentally translate my thoughts/actions into French, read the news in French, watch movies I've already seen in French, or read books I was already familiar with in French. It really helped me to understand grammar more and increased my vocabulary because I wasn't working so hard at comprehension.

[nakedneurosis]

the easiest way i can explain it: passe compose is for specific actions.
imparfait is for habitual actions.

for example:
I worked yesterday.
translated that would be in the passe compose, because you have both started and finished the action.

I was working for them.
translated that would be in the imparfait.

I was working when you called..
the first part of the sentence "i was working" would be imparfait
the second part of the sentence "when you called" would be passe compose.

For me, the last is the hardest concept, using both of them.
the easiest way to learn them, IMO, is read books in french, even if they are simple children's books.

[mundodeamor]

I second your request for music/movies/anything - I learned most of my Spanish from television, but I struggle with using French outside classes.