im sure this has been asked already but I can't get my head around why imperfect is used for "les festivités commençaient VERS vingt heures" and then past tense is used for "VERS vingt-trois heures trente, tout le monde s'est dirigé vers le terrain de foot" when both sentences says towards a time ???
imperfect or perfect tense ?
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Jim J. Kwiziq Q&A super contributor
Hi James,
"Yesterday, like every year, I went to see the fireworks. The festivities started around 8pm, with the New Year's Eve meal. My sister and I met our friends there and we had a lot of fun! Then around half past eleven, everyone headed for the football [US: soccer] field to be able to admire the fireworks."
1) The context in the first sentence is describing a past / background situation which happens regularly. Imparfait.
2) The context of the following sentence describes meeting friends etc but then the group headed off to do something else -- the meeting friends could be thought of as being curtailed / interrupted by the action of heading off to see the fireworks.
Perfect tense
Does this help?
Jim
James W.Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor
Thank you for your response, that sheds some light on it for sure !
Maarten K. Kwiziq Q&A super contributor
The first sentence is in passé composé. I put the second sentence into passé composé. From a native French speaker - "Les festivités ont commencé vers huit heures" in this context.
Wouldn't beat myself up over using passé composé here.
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