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
is there a trick to find the gender of nouns without knowing it beforehand ?
"You would go there" is translated as "Tu irais la-bas..." above. Could it also be: "Tu y irais?
canard is duck in French. paon is peacock.
Why not bleu paon?
Il a descendu ... but where is the verb meaning to walk? I would have translated this sentence as: Il a marché descendre ... I left the question blank because it was confusing. Thanks for your help!
When they arrive, you will welcome them.
One follows the other, why doesn't this use the FA?
The answer says that it used the Future. Thx -- Bill --
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
I am a little confused about the use of la journée and le soir in this text. 'During the day' (Pendant la journée) is feminine - I understand this as she is discussing a length of time rather than a specific point in time. I don't understand why 'in the evening' (le soir) is not 'la soirée' - what distinguishes these two statements to make the switch from feminine to masculine? Is it the preceding "during" and "in"?
Thanks in advance!
Bonjour - i'm confused as to why this is tierce instead of troisième. The lesson stated that tierce is used for fractions or portions and troisième is used for rank or order. A third party witness sounds like a ranking/ordering to me, and not a fraction or portion.
Would appreciate clarification.
Merci
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