french tenses?

Question

please

what is the diffrence between passe compose and passe simple.....is passe simple the impersect tense in english


also the imperfect has endings like ais ,ais,ait,ions....etc exactly like the conditionnel tense...so whats the difference between the imperfect and the conditional...when do you use which one....don't you jsut get confused

Answer 1

passé simple is old fashioned and used only in books, never spoken. it is used for literature, not speaking and there is no equivalent in english.

passé composé is a finished action ie he ate an apple or she saw an apple etc...

Imparfait is when something WAS happenenING like 'the phone was ringing' or 'the dog was barking'

not, the phone rang, the dog barked.

the conditional is just 'could' like on pourrait venir 'we could come' etc. just when something is not sure. it does look like the imperfect but its not the same.

hope that helped, i hated french at school and was TERRIBLE at grammar, the worst ever, i now live in paris and work here, so dont give up!!!

Answer 2

The passé composé and the passé simple actually occur at the same point on the time line – They both express an action that has been completed in a definite time frame. The difference is that the passé composé is a double-verb construction and the passé simple is a single verb construction.

The passé compose is made up of an auxiliary verb (either “avoir” or “être” depending on what verb follows) and a participe passé (a second verb that ends in either “é” “i” “u” or in the case of some irregular verbs “s” or “t”).

Formula: passé composé = “avoir” or “être” (in the present tense) + participe passé

Ex : 1. J’ai (auxiliary "avoir") mangé (participe passé) du pizza hier – I ate pizza yesterday

2. Elle est allée à Montréal cette été - He went to Montreal this summer
(NOTE : with « être » you have to make the accord between the subject “elle” and the participle passé of “aller” – you add an extra “e” because “elle” is feminine; if it was plural then I would have added “es”).

The passé simple, as I said, contains only one verb – typical endings for regular “er” verbs are as follows: “ai” “as” “a” “âmes” âtes” and “èrent”. However, the passé simple is usually reserved for more literary or formal texts (you may even hear it used in certain French dialects as well), while the passé compose is used in more every day and informal
communication.

On the other hand, the imperfect (or “imparfait”) and conditional tenses express completely different ideas. The imperfect is a past tense that usually describes a repetitive action, a state of being, a scene or situation, or an action with no definitive time line implied.

Examples:
1.Il faisait beau ce jour – The weather was nice that day (scene)
2.Chaque matin elle buvait un verre du cognac – Every day she drank a glass of cognac (repetitive action)
3.Lise était à la maison, quand il est entré. – Lise was at home, when he entered (« was at home » - not specified how long Lise was at home).

However, the conditional expresses the idea of “if this…then that” or a desire “I would like” – in other words it is used to talk about something that has no guarantee of actually happening. And while the endings for the conditional are similar to the imperfect there is a difference – if we take the verb “monter” for instance: in the imperfect it is “montAIS” and in the conditional “montERAIS.” In fact, the conditional ending is more like a combination of the future and the imperfect.

Examples:
1.J’aimerais avoir cinq enfants – I would like to have 5 kids
2.Si vous travailliez, vous pourriez faire beaucoup d’argent – If you worked, (then) you can make a lot of money.

Of course you also have the conditional past which expresses how things would have turned out had circumstances been different. Again the past conditional is a double verb construction (auxiliary “avoir” or “être” this time in the conditional present) and one of the give aways that the verb will be in the conditional is if you see or use a construction beginning with “Si…”

Hope I’ve cleared some things up for you. For further/future reference I suggest you look at the following web sites:
http://www.la-conjugaison.fr
http://french.about.com

Answer 3

I don't think there's much difference in meaning between passé composé and passé simple, just that pc is used mostly for speaking and ps for writing. Passé simple is the simple past in English (I ate, he walked).

The difference in FORM between the imparfait and the conditionelle is that the conditionnel starts like the futur and THEN has the imparfait endings. There will always be an "r" before the endings, but for irregulars it's not the infinitive. (Je danserais, tu irais)

The difference in USE is: imparfait is what "used to be"--a habit in the past or a long-standing state in the past. Or it can be the "condition" upon which the conditionelle rests. Conditionnel is what "would be" if something were different. So "si j'avais l'argent, j'irais avec toi." (If I had the money, I would go with you.)

Answer 4

passe simple is more literary than passe compose. PC is, most likely, what you'd use in conversation and in everyday speech.

The conditional tense is "would..." where as the imparfait implies that the action was continuing for some period of time. The tenses aren't exactly the same with respect to the endings... one uses ais, ais, ait.... and the other uses the infinitive PLUS ais, ais, ait... Big difference.

Answer 5

I do not know those terms but when you want to say in English; I was speaking or I used to speak you use the imperfect tense je parlais. When it is a finite event like I spoke you use the perfect j'ai parle with an acute accent over the e. The conditional is I would speak je parlerais and the conditional perfect I would have spoken is J'aurais parle again accented. Just look in your grammar book or good dictionary and if you do not have one , invest in one. If you get something like the birds sang in the trees which is descriptive and you can rephrase it as the birds were singing then that again is imperfect as there was no finite end to it.

Answer 6

passe compose is used to described things that have happened inthe past and are over and done with and also describes things that have only happened once (eg i went to the cinema last weekend=je suis allee au cinema le weekend dernier)
passe simple is like the literary equivalant of the passe compose so its only used in formal writing like historical and literary pieces.you wont really ever use it i think you just have to be able to recognise it the endngs are normally: -ai, -as, -a, -âmes, -âtes and -èrent
imperfect is used to decribe continuous actions in the past so you use it to describe what you were doing, what you used to do and what was happening
conditional is what you would do and you can use it to decribe wishes or feelings too

Answer 7

LAJOIE's answer seems to be very complete. However, there are some mistakes in the examples wich are given.
You say:
"j'ai mangé DE LA pizza hier"
"elle est allée à Montréal CET été"
"chaque matin elle buvait un verre DE cognac" (I like this sentence! :) )

much more important, you say "si vous travailliez beaucoup, vous pourriez GAGNER beaucoup d'argent" (beware of the literal translation of "you could make money")

That's all!

Answer 8

Chaque matin je prenais le train Pendant la journée, au travail, je servais les gens dans UN restaurant (A restaurant) Je servais les gens dans le restaurant familial (THE restaurant) Je dois renouveler les plats que je sers dans le restaurant.

Answer 9

Imperfect tense ...I was watching/ I used to watch..Je regardais.
Conditional tense..I would watch...je regarderais.

Past simple(historic) ..I watched (not used in conversation) , past perfect...I have watched.....j'ai regardé