First, why did we use the partitive article "de l’" instead of the indefinite articles "des" for the word "ananas". You can use either the partitive or the indefinite articles here but it makes more sense to use the partitive ...
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Passé composé ou imparfait dans le cas du verbe « savoir »
Associations EditorsEn utilisant le passé composé, on parle d’un évènement court, ici l’évènement qui leur a permis de le savoir (on est donc étonné qu’ils ne l’aient su qu’hier). En utilisant l’imparfait, on parle d’un évènement sur la durée, donc toute ...
Passive voice in the past
Business EditorsIndeed you’ve got the right translations, although I’m not sure that english uses the same time for the same context. What is certain is that you use the imparfait for an action which last in time whereas you use the ...
“Passé composé” vs imparfait”
Business EditorsThe main thing that could help you is that for passé composé the action happened and is finished. Passé composé is used to answer the question “What happened ?” Imparfait is used to answer the question “What happened during the ...
Why the need to say “je l’ai été” instead of “je l’étais”?
Associations EditorsBoth sentences are correct, the choice of the tense expresses a different aspect of the action. Vous avez l’air d’être l’un d’eux, comme je l’ai été moi-même, autrefois. Passé composé: focuses on the action/state itself with no reference to the ...
What is the difference in using “nous étudiions pendant des heures” and “nous étudiions des heures”
Associations EditorsUsually you study for hours, so you say nous étudions pendant des heures. The case when some says étudier quelqu’un (quelque chose) is the situation where someone is studying (or doing research) on a topic for instance: nous étudions l’anatomie ...
L’imparfait, le plus-que-parfait ou le passé composé
Associations EditorsIn this third example the “imparfait” is a “background” tense; it is used to communicate information about the setting; the explanation below comes from the following reference; A1) L’imparfait de l’arrière-plan ou de l’action secondaire : il s’applique à des ...
Imperfect introducing a quote?
Associations EditorsNot a French natif but I think this is the so-called "imparfait de narration". E.g. Albert Camus est mort accidentellement en 1960. Albert Camus mourait accidentellement en 1960. This imperfect can be used when putting past events into perspective with ...
Why is “Personne n’arrivait” using passé composé and not imparfait?
Business Editors
I think my answer in the previous post might have been slightly incorrect in English and therefore confusing you. I personally don’t make a real difference between “Nobody arrived” and “Nobody has arrived”, and I think that’s were I’m wrong. ...
Understanding “Et comme si le temps eût pu s’arrêter avec moi”
Business Editorsyes, it’s conditionel ‘second form’. That form is used almost exclusively in literature. You could replace it by ‘aurait pu’ which is the conditionel ‘first form’. ‘avait pu’ has a slightly different meaning, almost as if there was an opportunity ...