He was enjoying a cup of coffee, but something was missing. Seated on the terrace of the Cactus Cafe, Tex was watching the girls who walked by. Il savourait une tasse de café, mais quelque chose manquait. Installé à la terrasse du Cactus Cafe, Tex regardait les filles qui passaient. To set the scene of a story by giving background information.
These aspectual differences are best understood in a narrative context where the imparfait is typically used In other words, an event in the passé composé must be completed before another may be used in narration. The passé composé on the other hand, indicates an action that is in a strict sequence in relation to another action. Actions in the imparfait may be simultaneous or overlapping. The imparfait indicates an action that is ongoing or habitual.
While both tenses refer to actions in the past, they are used for very different types of actions. The most important aspectual distinction in French concerns the difference between the two most common past tenses: Rather, aspect is concerned with making distinctions about the kinds of actions that are described by verbs: progressive actions, punctual actions, habitual actions, etc. In contrast, a tense comprising two forms, the auxiliary verb and the participle, is referred to as a compound tense (ie, le passé composé).Īspect, unlike tense, is not concerned with placing events on a time line. For example, a tense with only one verb form is called a simple tense (ie, le passé simple). Tenses are also described by their number of parts. The futur antérieur tense indicates a future action that will have occured before another future action.Īctions that occur before another action are described as being anterior. However, some tenses establish their time frame by referring to other actions in the past or in the future.įor example, the plus-que-parfait tense indicates a past action that occurred prior to the the completion of another past action. The time frame of an action is usually established by referring to the present moment for example, the passéĬomposé and the future are respectively past and future in relation to the present. Tense is the grammatical term that refers to the time when the action of the verb occurs: past, present, future.
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