Imparfait vs Le Passé Composé for ÊtreCan you explain how to decide whether to use imparfait or le passé composé for être? If I understand it correctly, imparfait is for past events of some duration or past states of existence while le passé composé is for bounded one-off past events.
Above is this example:
L'année dernière, j'ai été vraiment malade.
But if one was sick for most of the year, or even for some months, wouldn't it be:
L'année dernière, j'étais vraiment malade.
So, am I right in thinking the example sentence means something like "I had an episode of grave illness last year"?
Similarly, there is this example above:
Avez-vous été marié?
But being married is, except in extreme cases where there is a divorce immediately after the marriage, being married is an event of some duration.
So, why wouldn't it be:
Étiez-vous marié?
Unless the question is, simply, "have you ever had a marriage ceremony" (which would be a bounded event rather than a state of existence of some duration). But people don't really ask that.
Thanks for any clarification you can provide.
In the first two examples ("il y a du brouillard" and "il y a de l'orage"), the audio version is different than the written version. Are both the written and audio versions correct and if not, which versions are correct?
In the sentence "...où j'ai vu les plus merveilleuses peintures préhistoriques de ma vie. ", why is tableaux not accepted as a synonym for peintures. My dictionary makes no real distinction between the two words.
Can you explain how to decide whether to use imparfait or le passé composé for être? If I understand it correctly, imparfait is for past events of some duration or past states of existence while le passé composé is for bounded one-off past events.
Above is this example:
L'année dernière, j'ai été vraiment malade.
But if one was sick for most of the year, or even for some months, wouldn't it be:
L'année dernière, j'étais vraiment malade.
So, am I right in thinking the example sentence means something like "I had an episode of grave illness last year"?
Similarly, there is this example above:
Avez-vous été marié?
But being married is, except in extreme cases where there is a divorce immediately after the marriage, being married is an event of some duration.
So, why wouldn't it be:
Étiez-vous marié?
Unless the question is, simply, "have you ever had a marriage ceremony" (which would be a bounded event rather than a state of existence of some duration). But people don't really ask that.
Thanks for any clarification you can provide.
Find your French level for FREE
Test your French to the CEFR standard
Find your French level