Hier, j'ai vu un film.
English: Yesterday, I saw a movie.
- Language
- French
- Level
- B2
- Unit
- Discours indirect et temps du passé
- Practice types
- 0
What this grammar point covers
French has different past tenses to talk about things that happened before now. The main ones are passé composé, imparfait, and plus-que-parfait.
When to use it
Use passé composé to talk about completed, specific actions in the past. Imparfait is for habits, repeated actions, or descriptions in the past. Plus-que-parfait describes an action that happened before another past action.
Key forms
- Passé composé: subject + auxiliary (être/avoir in present) + past participle (e.g., J'ai mangé)
- Imparfait: stem of 'nous' form in present + endings -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient (e.g., Je mangeais)
- Plus-que-parfait: subject + auxiliary (être/avoir in imperfect) + past participle (e.g., J'avais mangé)
Examples
Quand j'étais petit, je jouais dans le jardin.
English: When I was little, I used to play in the garden.
Il avait déjà mangé quand je suis arrivé.
English: He had already eaten when I arrived.
Nous regardions la télévision quand le téléphone a sonné.
English: We were watching TV when the phone rang.
Tips
- With être as the auxiliary in passé composé, the past participle must agree in gender and number with the subject.
- Use imparfait for background or ongoing actions, not for single, completed events.
- Plus-que-parfait is only used when you want to show one past action happened before another.
Exceptions and edge cases
- Some verbs use être as the auxiliary in passé composé (e.g., aller, venir, arriver).
- Many past participles are irregular (e.g., avoir → eu, être → été, faire → fait).