Bonjour,
Above in the explanation, it is mentioned that l'imparfait has no clear beginning or end. But when I attempted the Fill-in-the-blanks Mon jour férié (Passé Composé vs Imparfait), there was a sentence - J’étais encore en pyjama vers 13h, (which is given as the correct answer). Whereas I had written, " J'ai encore été en pyjama vers 13h, and this answer was given as incorrect. But I don't understand, the end time is given here, (vers 13h). So why can't we select Passé composè?
Merci!
In this situation it is unknown how long she was wearing pyjamas - neither the start time nor the finish time, let alone both, are well defined. She is describing something that was an ongoing situation at the time, with the only information being ‘still wearing around (1 pm)’. This is not an event that ‘happened’ around 1pm, but something that ‘was happening’. Hence, imparfait is indicated as described in the lesson you linked.
Also, without trying to do the impossible, trying to cover all the details and nuances of imparfait/passé composé in a post here, it is worth adding that ‘être’ will mostly be used as imparfait in past tense.
Here is an external link that may assist you in further developing a feel for the differences between passé compose and imparfait. Especially worth reading and viewing the stories and the clip presented at the end
https://www.frenchtoday.com/blog/french-verb-conjugation/passe-compose-versus-imparfait/
There are many other good explanations and presentations online that are useful. With difficult concepts I think it usually pays to read/view different ways of presenting them, as supplementary material to the lessons here.
Bonjour,
Above in the explanation, it is mentioned that l'imparfait has no clear beginning or end. But when I attempted the Fill-in-the-blanks Mon jour férié (Passé Composé vs Imparfait), there was a sentence - J’étais encore en pyjama vers 13h, (which is given as the correct answer). Whereas I had written, " J'ai encore été en pyjama vers 13h, and this answer was given as incorrect. But I don't understand, the end time is given here, (vers 13h). So why can't we select Passé composè?
Merci!
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