Passé Composé of être

White L.A2Kwiziq 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!

This question relates to:French dictation exercise "Entretien avec une chanteuse"

Dictation exercise A2

Asked 5 years ago

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Chris W.C1 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.

Like05 years ago

White L. asked:

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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« Je viens d’Inde!I wondered why 'je vais me battre à' is not as acceptable as 'je vais avoir du mal à' for 'I am going to struggle'. Perhaps not as colloquial? »

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