GR2notes

GET READY Passé : imparfait & passé composé

Bonjour and welcome to the Dictée au passé: l’imparfait et le passé composé!

Before you listen to your dictée au passé, I want to clearly point out some key grammar

and conjugation reminders so you feel prepared and conﬁdent.

I want to remind you about the endings both for imparfait and passé composé.

Then, I want to make sure you remember the major differences between these 2 tenses to

help you choose in case you’re ever in doubt.

Then, I will go through French punctuation so you recognize it when I use it throughout the

dictée.

Finally, I will explain how I will read the text to you so you know what to expect.

Let’s start with the imparfait endings

Imparfait endings with the verb comprendre, to understand

Je comprenAIS

Tu comprenAIS

Elle, il, on comprenAIT

Nous comprenIONS

Vous comprenIEZ

Elles, ils comprenAIENT

Notice how the endings for Je comprenAIS, Tu comprenAIS, Elle, il, on comprenAIT, Elles,

ils comprenAIENT are all pronounced the same even though they are spelt differently. And,

I know it’s tempting, but you mustn’t pronounce the ENT at the end of the third person

plural for any verb, ever.

So the ending for je is AIS

The ending for tu is AIS

The ending for elle, il, on is AIT

The ending for nous is IONS

The ending for vous is IEZ

The ending for elles, ils is AIENT

One more time, and with a different verb this time so you get more practice, let’s conjugate

regarder, to watch, to look at:

Je regardAIS

Tu regardAIS

Elle, il, on regardAIT

Nous regardIONS

Vous regardIEZ

Elles, ils regardAIENT

How to build the imparfait

Great, now you know the endings for imparfait. But what if you don’t remember how to

form the imparfait tense in the ﬁrst place? Granted that you know your present tense,

here’s a perfect way to always know how to build the imparfait.

First, look at the present tense with the subject nous. Going back to our ﬁrst verb,

comprendre, let’s conjugate it au présent et avec le sujet “nous”:

Nous comprenons = we understand

Then, you take the ending, in other words, the last 3 letters ons out, so you are left with

compren.

Now, all of you have to do is add your imparfait endings for each subject!

For instance, the imparfait ending for je is ais, take the root you just found, which was

compren, and add ais. You obtain: je comprenais! C’est magique!

Let’s continue with the passé composé endings

Passé composé endings. This past tense is made up of 2 elements:

1) the auxiliaire, which could either be avoir (to have) or être (to be)

2) the past participle

In other words it’s got 2 parts.

Let’s explore le passé composé with the verb habiter, to live, with the auxiliaire avoir, and

the verb tomber, to fall, with the auxiliaire être.

Habiter + auxiliaire avoir

J’ai habitÉ

Tu as habitÉ

Elle, il, on a habitÉ

Nous avons habitÉ

Vous avez habitÉ

Elles, ils ont habitÉ

It’s quite easy: it’s just habité with é at the end, it doesn’t change! Yes! Ok that’s a little lie.

Sometimes it does change. If it can make you feel better I will tell you now, most French

people get it wrong, so not the end of the world if you do too. Still, I have to teach it to you

properly.

You need to match the past participle with the gender (feminine or masculine) and the

number (singular or plural) of the complement, when this complement is placed before the

verb.

Sounds like Gibberish? Totally normal, but, I’m sure you’ll understand with a few

examples:

J’ai fait une tarte au chocolat = I made a chocolate tart

The subject is Je = I, the verb is ai fait = made, the complement is une tarte au chocolat =

a chocolate tart. In this example, the complement une tarte au chocolat is placed after the

verb. This means you do nothing with the past participle fait, it remains in its standard

form, which is masculine & singular.

Now let’s look at the same example but with a different sentence structure:

La tarte au chocolat que j’ai faite = The chocolate tart that I made

The complement is la tarte au chocolat = the chocolate tart, the subject is je = I, the verb is

ai faite = made. In this example, the complement une tarte au chocolat is placed before

the verb. This means you must match the gender (feminine) and the number (singular) of

la tarte au chocolat with the past participle, which becomes faite. Now you can hear the “t”

because of the added “e” at the end of the word fait.

And just for fun, let’s now look at the same example again, but with a different sentence

structure:

Je les ai faites = I made them (them being the chocolate tarts)

The subject is je = I, the complement is les = them (them being the chocolate tarts), the

verb is ai faites = made. In this example, The complement is les. It is the pronoun

replacing the chocolate tarts. It is placed before the verb so you must match the gender

(feminine) and the number (plural) of les with the past participle, which becomes faites.

Notice by the way that you hear the “t” but you do not hear the “e” nor the “s”. You’ll never

hear a plural “s” at the end of a word.

So to summarize, and again I wouldn’t worry too much about this subtlety because like I

said, most French people wouldn’t even notice if you made that mistake, when you use the

auxiliaire avoir in the passé composé, normally you do not touch the past participle when

you use the auxiliaire avoir. It remains in its standard form, which remember is masculine

& singular.

That is always true except… when it’s not! It’s always true expect when the complement of

your sentence is placed before the verb. When it is, you need to match the gender and

number of this complement to the past participle. And don’t worry too much, you’re more

likely to see the past participle ending unchanged as generally the complement is placed

after the verb.

We’ve just covered conjugating the passé composé with the auxiliaire avoir. Now, let’s

continue with the auxiliaire être. For this we will use the verb tomber, to fall.

Tomber + être

Je suis tombÉ(E)

Tu es tombÉ(E)

Elle, il, on est tombÉ(E)

Nous sommes tombÉ(E)S

Vous êtes tombÉ(E)(S)

Elles, ils sont tombÉ(E)S

When you use the auxiliaire être, you need to match the past participle with the gender

(feminine or masculine) and the number (singular or plural) of the subject. Examples:

Bruno, i.e. a boy, is talking. He will say and write: Je suis tombé = I fell

The subject je is a boy so you match the gender (masculine) and the number (singular) of

je with the past participle, which becomes tombé.

Now it’s Sophie, i.e. a girl, who is talking. She will say and write: Je suis tombée = I fell

The subject je is a girl so you match the gender (feminine) and the number (singular) of je

with the past participle, which becomes tombée.

One more example, this time plural:

Bruno et Sophie sont tombés = Bruno and Sophie (or they) fell

The subject is a boy and a girl, so you match the gender (masculine) and the number

(plurals) of Bruno et Sophie with the past participle, which becomes tombés. Why

masculine you may ask since we have both a boy and a girl? Because when masculine

and feminine are mixed, it always becomes masculine by default. So if you’re describing a

room of women, you will say: “Elles sont ici.” Yet if you add one man to this same room the

sentence will become: “Ils sont ici.”

So one more time, little recap. The passé composé is a past tense made of 2 elements:

ﬁrst the auxiliaire, which can either be avoir ou être, second, the past participle. If your

verb uses the auxiliaire avoir, you do not need to worry about the past participle, you do

nothing to it, you leave it in his standard form, which is masculine singular. For instance:

Nous avons mangé une pomme = We ate an apple

However, if the complement of the sentence is placed before the verb, you must match the

ending of the past participle with the gender and number of that complement. For instance:

La pomme que nous avons mangée = The apple that we ate

If your verb uses the auxiliaire être, you need to match the ending of the past participle

with the gender and the number of the subject. For instance:

Les trains sont arrivés à l’heure = The trains arrived on time

Imparfait ou Passé composé

Ok now that we’re done with the conjugation part, let’s ﬁgure out which of the 2 past

tenses to choose: imparfait ou passé composé?

In general it’s safe to associate passé composé with an action that has a clear beginning

and a clear ending. You can also picture a series of separate actions such as:

This morning I woke up at 6am, then I walked my dogs, I ate breakfast, I took a shower,

and I sat down in front of my computer.

On the other side, we can associate imparfait with a description or a lasting action. Another

French teacher uses the following image I really like: she describes the imparfait as an

uninterrupted straight line until the passé composé comes to break it with an action.

And just in case, here’s another easy image for you to remember: a painting. The

foreground of the painting is passé composé: it’s the storyline where the action takes

place. The background of the painting is imparfait: it sets the scene.

Ok I know this is all a bit abstract so how about we explore some examples:

Je me douchais quand soudainement le téléphone a sonné = I was taking a shower when

suddenly the phone rang

Je me douchais = imparfait

le téléphone a sonné = passé composé

I was taking a shower sets the scene, suddenly the phone rang, is the action. Very

important and helpful thing for you to notice here, the format was + ing, I was taking.

Any time you need to use this format I was eating, she was thinking, we were wondering,

etc. it must become a reﬂex in your brains IMPARFAIT. And you see they all express

something that lasts in time.

Second example:

J’habitais aux États-Unis et puis je suis rentrée en France = I used to live in the US and

then I returned to France

J’habitais = imparfait

je suis rentrée = passé composé

I used to live in the US again makes you feel the length of time while I came back to

France is clearly the storyline. Again, very important and helpful thing for you to notice

here, the format used to, I used to live in the US. Any time you need to use this format I

used to go to yoga every day, she used to like me, they used to work here, etc. it must

become a reﬂex in your brains IMPARFAIT. Again they all express something that lasted in

time, without necessarily a clear beginning or a clear ending.

Descriptions also require the imparfait. You could describe the weather, how you feel, if

you’re happy or sad or sick. None of these have a clear beginning or ending. I’m not happy

from 8am to 8:30am immediately followed by sad from 8:30am to 9am, etc. you get the

idea.

Examples of descriptions:

Hier il faisait chaud = Yesterday it was hot

J’étais heureuse = I was happy

Il semblait triste = He seemed sad

Now let’s have a look at examples of sentences with passé composé so you clearly see

the difference:

Ce matin, je suis arrivée en retard au travail = this morning I arrived late at work

Je n’ai pas compris ce que vous avez dit = I did not understand what you said

All of these events happened at a speciﬁc time and then they were over. I didn’t remain

late all day, I arrived late and then I went along with my day. I did not understand what you

said, it’s the one time you said that one thing, then you explained it and I understood it.

If you look back at our initial examples again:

Je me douchais quand soudainement le téléphone a sonné = I was taking a shower when

suddenly the phone rang

The phone rang, it didn’t use to ring, it wasn’t ringing for 3 hours, it rang then I got out of

my shower I picked up the phone it was over.

J’habitais aux États-Unis et puis je suis partie = I used to live in the US and then I left

I left. I just left and then I was gone. I wasn’t lingering there for years. I left and that was it.

French punctuation

Now that we are done going through presenting both the imparfait and the passé

composé, let’s go though the punctuation in French so that you recognize it when I read it

out loud to you during the dictée:

point .

virgule ,

deux points :

trois points …

ouvrez les guillemets “

fermez les guillemets “

à la ligne = line break

tiret -

point d’exclamation !

point d’interrogation ?

Finally, here’s how I’m going to read this dictée

I will do so exactly like my French teachers used to. I will read slowly and pause often so

you have time to think and write. As you know I will also read the punctuation. I will repeat

each sentence 2 or 3 times and then move on. If it’s too quick for you or if you need to

hear it again, just pause and go back. At the end of the dictée when you have written

everything down, I will read the whole text again, in one go, and without repetition, so you

can check your work one last time. That’s it!

And now, it is time, for your dictée au passé. FYI, the person using the “je” in this text is a

woman, so you’ll need to remember this for some of your verb and adjective endings. Vous

êtes prêt?