imperfect or perfect tense ?

James W.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

imperfect or perfect tense ?

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 ??? 

Asked 3 years ago
Jim J.C1 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.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

Thank you for your response, that sheds some light on it for sure !

Maarten K.C1 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. 

imperfect or perfect tense ?

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 ??? 

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