Imparfait vs Le Passé Composé for ÊtreCan you explain how to decide whether to use imparfait or le passé composé for être? If I understand it correctly, imparfait is for past events of some duration or past states of existence while le passé composé is for bounded one-off past events.
Above is this example:
L'année dernière, j'ai été vraiment malade.
But if one was sick for most of the year, or even for some months, wouldn't it be:
L'année dernière, j'étais vraiment malade.
So, am I right in thinking the example sentence means something like "I had an episode of grave illness last year"?
Similarly, there is this example above:
Avez-vous été marié?
But being married is, except in extreme cases where there is a divorce immediately after the marriage, being married is an event of some duration.
So, why wouldn't it be:
Étiez-vous marié?
Unless the question is, simply, "have you ever had a marriage ceremony" (which would be a bounded event rather than a state of existence of some duration). But people don't really ask that.
Thanks for any clarification you can provide.
Hello,
In the sentence below, finies means gone/finished, but is it used as a noun or is something different? I checked the conjugator there is no such thing as finies, too. What kind of usage is this?
Finies mes journees tranquilles !
Bonjour les gars et les experts
Au sujet de la frase, 'j'ai dû le lire trop vite!'
Serait-ce possible de dire aussi 'je dois l'avoir lu trop vite!'?
Can you explain how to decide whether to use imparfait or le passé composé for être? If I understand it correctly, imparfait is for past events of some duration or past states of existence while le passé composé is for bounded one-off past events.
Above is this example:
L'année dernière, j'ai été vraiment malade.
But if one was sick for most of the year, or even for some months, wouldn't it be:
L'année dernière, j'étais vraiment malade.
So, am I right in thinking the example sentence means something like "I had an episode of grave illness last year"?
Similarly, there is this example above:
Avez-vous été marié?
But being married is, except in extreme cases where there is a divorce immediately after the marriage, being married is an event of some duration.
So, why wouldn't it be:
Étiez-vous marié?
Unless the question is, simply, "have you ever had a marriage ceremony" (which would be a bounded event rather than a state of existence of some duration). But people don't really ask that.
Thanks for any clarification you can provide.
Why does one say "j'ai arrêté de parler" and not "je me suis arrêté de parler"?
arrêter is a transitive verb and thus to my understanding takes an object but the verb parler can not be an object in the example above. So how do I know what one to use.
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