To French speakers. Can someone tell me the difference between pasee imparfait and pasee compose?

Question

How do I know when to use which one? Can you give an example? Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

ah let me guess French 2 at high school?
anyways imparfait is used to describe:
1) an ongoing action with no specified completion: Jallais en France (i was going to France) <-- the action isnt completed. it couldve been i was going to France when i saw someone i knew.
2) a habitual or repeated action: Jallais au lecole tous les jours. (I apologize for the absence of apostrophes, my keyboard is broken) or somethine like every sunday i go to church would use imparfait.
3) Describing the setting: how things were or what was happening when. I was grocery shopping when I called my friend. (the examples arent that good either, sorry theyre off the top of my head). so that would be "Je faisait les courses quand jai telephone mon ami." Imparfait to describe what was happening (i was doing this) and passe compose for the rest. Here is another example: Il faisait beau quand il a pleut. (describing the how things were (imparfait) when (quand) this happened (passe compose).
4) Description of physical of mental state:
Javais les cheveux tres longs - I used to have long hair.
5) Time of Day or time in the past:
Il etait cinq heure

For Passe Compose
1) one or more events thatt began or ended in the past.
So basically something that happened. Jai telephone mon copin - I telephoned my friend
2) an event - something that you did once rather than opposed to something you do every sunday or monday or something (habitually).
Jai visitais Paris lannee derniere. I visited paris last year. (im not saying i visit paris every, just last year (which isnt Habitual) so i would use passe compose).
3) when something was happening and interuppting what was happening. i kinda went over this. Il faisait beau (something was happening) quand il a pleut (it rained). The rain interuppted the sunny day so passe compose after the quand.
4) change in physical or mental state at a precise moment.
I got wet when it rained. I got wet (in passe compose) quand it rained (in passe compose again.)

hope that helps
also check the site on my sources, thats pretty much where i got it, i tried to explain in my own words.

Bonne Chance!

Answer 2

Passe imparfait does not exist, it is plain "imparfait". It is something continuous in the past, like when I was in Paris, I used to eat in a cafe every day (Quand j' etais a Paris, je mangeais dans un cafe tous les jours)sorry-no accents.
Passe compose is like "I have done this" :J' ai deja explique mon idee a mon ami,
but casually it is also used instead of the simple past, as you would say :This morning I ate in a fancy restaurant: ce matin j'ai mangai dans un bon restaurant.

Answer 3

j'ai
j'ai eu
j'avais

I have
I had
I was having, I have (in the past), etc.

Imparfait is appropriate in use when discussing a past state or situation, it is also useful in describing emotion in contrast to the use of the past tense in literature. The passe compose is used to describe direct past situations, as opposed to indirect past situations--

I was having a cup of tea when he came in
I had a cup of tea.

Je buvais une tasse de the pendant qu'il est entre.
J'ai bu une tasse de the.

The passe compose would be less in the moment or state and more about direct past action, I was doing something.

If you describe something before something else in the past, you use another tense-plusque parfait.