Mon chien favorit s'appelait Pip. Why the imparfait here? It seems a simple statement, neither ongoing, repeated nor descriptive. It doesn't seem to fulfill any of the criteria of the imparfait.
Imparfait vs passe compose
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Imparfait vs passe compose
This is a piece of background history, and is ‘descriptive’ in that sense. It was not a specific single event, or series of completed events. It was an ongoing ‘action/event’ completely in the past - maybe arguing in circles here, but the use of imparfait in French actually tells us that.
As well as the lessons here, the attached is a good link for developing a feel for the French use of imparfait - recommend reading through the story examples and watch the video explanation.
https://www.frenchtoday.com/blog/french-verb-conjugation/passe-compose-versus-imparfait/
My understanding, in this case, would be that the dog was called Pip for its entire life, not for just one moment in time. I may well be quite wrong.
Imparfait vs passe compose
Mon chien favorit s'appelait Pip. Why the imparfait here? It seems a simple statement, neither ongoing, repeated nor descriptive. It doesn't seem to fulfill any of the criteria of the imparfait.
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