Passé composé vs imparfait

French has two past tenses you'll use constantly — the passé composé and the imparfait — and choosing between them is one of the classic beginner hurdles. The good news: there's a clear logic, and a few trigger words make the choice obvious most of the time.

The one-line rule

The passé composé is for completed actions and events; the imparfait is for ongoing background, descriptions and habits. Think of the imparfait as the film's setting and the passé composé as the things that happen against it.

Compare: Je lisais quand le téléphone a sonné. "I was reading (imparfait — ongoing) when the phone rang (passé composé — the event)."

Use the PASSÉ COMPOSÉ for…

• A completed, one-off action — J'ai mangé une pizza. (I ate a pizza.)
• A sequence of events — Il est entré, a vu Marie et a souri.
• Something that happened a specific number of times — Je suis allé en France trois fois.

It's built with an auxiliary (avoir or être) plus a past participle: j'ai parlé, je suis allé.

Use the IMPARFAIT for…

• Ongoing or background actions — Il pleuvait. (It was raining.)
• Descriptions in the past — Elle était grande et avait les yeux bleus.
• Habits and repeated actions — Quand j'étais petit, je jouais au foot. (When I was little, I used to play football.)

Trigger words that hint at each

A quick test

Ask: am I describing what was going on (imparfait) or what happened (passé composé)? "Used to" and "was/were —ing" in English almost always signal the imparfait; a finished action with a clear start and end signals the passé composé.

How to make it automatic

Tense choice clicks through storytelling, not tables. Navoq has you narrate and answer in real sentences out loud, so you build the instinct for which past tense fits — the same way native speakers do.