Passé simple vs Imparfait : action ponctuelle vs durée

Imagine you are watching a movie. The imparfait is the background music and the weather. It tells you it was raining or that the hero was feeling sad. It covers things that take time or happen repeatedly. The passé simple is the "jump scare" or the sudden knock on the door. It represents actions that are finished, quick, and move the story forward. In a sentence, you will often see them together. The imparfait sets the scene, and the passé simple interrupts it. It is the classic "I was sleeping (imparfait) when the phone rang (passé simple)." In spoken French, we use the passé composé for those quick actions. But in books, the passé simple takes the lead. It keeps the story moving at a brisk, elegant pace.

1. 1For the imparfait, the rules are very friendly.
2. 2Take the nous form of the present tense (like parlons).
3. 3Chop off the -ons to get the stem (parl-).
4. 4Add the endings: -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient.
5. 5For the passé simple, things get a bit more "literary."
6. 6For -er verbs, use endings like -ai, -as, -a, -âmes, -âtes, -èrent.
7. 7For -ir and -re verbs, use -is, -is, -it, -îmes, -îtes, -irent.
8. 8Irregular verbs have their own club. être becomes fut, and avoir becomes eut.
9. 9Don't stress about memorizing every single form right now. At the A1 level, your goal is to recognize them when you see them in a book. You are basically learning to spot celebrities in a crowd!

Use the imparfait for:

• Descriptions: "The castle was big" (Le château était grand).
• Habits: "I ate an apple every day" (Je mangeais une pomme chaque jour).
• Ongoing states: "He was tired" (Il était fatigué).
• Weather and time: "It was noon" (Il était midi).

Use the passé simple for:

• Sudden actions: "Suddenly, he fell" (Soudain, il tomba).
• A sequence of events: "He entered, he saw, he conquered."
• Actions with a clear start and end: "The war lasted ten years."

Think of it like this: imparfait is the "was/were doing" and passé simple is the "did."

Never use the passé simple when talking to your friends at a café. If you say Je mangeai une pizza (I ate a pizza) to a waiter, they might think you are a time traveler from the 17th century! It is strictly for formal writing, history books, and fairy tales. Also, do not use the imparfait for the main "punchline" of a story. If the most important thing happened quickly, the imparfait will make it sound like it's still happening, which ruins the drama. It’s like trying to run a marathon in slow motion—it just doesn't work for the big moments.

One big mistake is using the imparfait for everything in the past because it feels easier. If you say Il pleuvait (It was raining) when you mean it started raining suddenly, the meaning changes. Another mistake is mixing up the endings. The passé simple for il often ends in -a or -it, which can look like the present tense if you aren't careful. Also, watch out for the "s" in imparfait. Je parlais (I was speaking) needs that "s," while Il parla (He spoke) in passé simple does not. Yes, even native speakers mess this up sometimes when they are tired!

The biggest rival to the passé simple is the passé composé. They actually do the exact same job! The only difference is where you find them. Passé composé is for speaking and emails. Passé simple is for novels and formal speeches. If you see Il a mangé in a text and Il mangea in a book, they mean the same thing. The imparfait, however, is the same in both speaking and writing. It never changes its job. It stays the king of descriptions no matter where you are.