Passé composé vs. imparfaitIf a sentence is initiated by a fixed duration, is it always necessary to use passé composé?
For example, if I want to say….
During the six days of the trial, the judge was sitting at the front of the room, the lights were low, and the courtroom was full.
I have a fixed duration…. which aligns with the use of passé composé. But I am giving a description of the situation, with all things occurring simultaneously, and the information does not progress the story…. which aligns with the use of imparfait.
For me, it makes more sense to use imparfait, but I have been told that the presence of the fixed duration at the start of the phrase mandates the use of PC.
The sentence as I would write it is as follows:
Durant les six jours d'audience, le juge était assis à l’avant de la salle, les lumières étaient sombres et la salle de Cour était pleine
Quelle est la différence entre une chandelle, un cierge and une bougie ?
In English there may be a difference in meaning between "You went out even though I wasn't ok with it" and "You went out even though I'm not ok with it"; I might have changed my mind in the interim: "You went out even though I wasn't ok with it [, but now I am ok with it]." Wouldn't this second sense require the imperfect rather than the subjunctive in modern French: "... bien que je n'étais pas d'accord"?
"The weather was wonderful." There is no clear beginning and the end, so why is it in passé composé? Can I say "Il fesait beau."?
If a sentence is initiated by a fixed duration, is it always necessary to use passé composé?
For example, if I want to say….
During the six days of the trial, the judge was sitting at the front of the room, the lights were low, and the courtroom was full.
I have a fixed duration…. which aligns with the use of passé composé. But I am giving a description of the situation, with all things occurring simultaneously, and the information does not progress the story…. which aligns with the use of imparfait.
For me, it makes more sense to use imparfait, but I have been told that the presence of the fixed duration at the start of the phrase mandates the use of PC.
The sentence as I would write it is as follows:
Durant les six jours d'audience, le juge était assis à l’avant de la salle, les lumières étaient sombres et la salle de Cour était pleine
The lesson states that the e in, for example, 'joueront' is not pronounced.
Please explain why this is so when the verb in the following sentence, taken from the lesson, the e is pronounced.:
Nous volerons dans une heure.
The lesson states "some adverbs are placed between the auxiliary verb and the past participle. These include 'encore'.
The Larousse online dictionary gives the following examples of 'encore' [3. dans des phrases négatives] which follow this rule using ne...pas ne...rien ne...jamais.
je n'ai pas encore fini I haven't finished yet vous n'avez encore rien vu ! you haven't seen anything yet !je n'avais encore jamais vu ça ! I'd never seen anything like it before !
My question is, why is 'encore' placed after 'pas' but before rien and before jamais?
Thank You
Second last question is to translate the following into French :
"but I know my lesson by heart"
I answered:"mais je sais ma leçon par cœur"
I was marked incorrect for using savoir instead of connaître.
Referring to a comment made by Cecile in a separate discussion, she states that savoir is the instinctive verb that the French would use when using "par cœur" as it indicates that you know the lesson for sure....
What am I missing?
Find your French level for FREE
And get your personalised Study Plan to improve it
Find your French level