Passé Composé of être

WhiteA2Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

Passé Composé of être

I thought Etre is typically imparfait because it expresses a state of being or background information. "L'accueil du public a été bouleversant." Why is this verb in this sentence PC? Merci!
Asked 4 years ago
ChrisC1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor Correct answer

You are correct that être, being a verb of state, is mostly used in imperfect tense when talking about the past. A state, after all, is something that has a duration, a temporal extent.

But when you use être to refer to a "point" event in the past, you use it in the passé composé. The example talks about the reception of the public, which the speaker regards as a point event and hence uses the passé composé.

Passé Composé of être

I thought Etre is typically imparfait because it expresses a state of being or background information. "L'accueil du public a été bouleversant." Why is this verb in this sentence PC? Merci!

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