Why is it used "c'etait" with a meaning of passé composé ? I.e. "C'etait une belle soirée " Thanks!

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Accepted Answer

Bonjour Máximo,
The verb être does not have distinct imperfect vs passé composé meanings like many other verbs do - ça a été and c'était are both normally equivalent to "was/were."
This is also the case for avoir, which is normally just "had" in English.
In comparison, action verbs like aller do have different translations: je suis allé - I went vs j'allais - I was going.

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Because the "soirée" is finished and they are probably saying good by to their host; The meaning is not "passé composé" , since the "soirée" is over:

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Thank you massy but in my opinion "c'etait" is conjugated " à l'imparfait" and the meaning does not correspond to that tense theoretically. Thanks again!

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Muchas gracias Laura!!
Merci bien!!

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Because it was lasted for a while, and was incomplete.

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Because the phrase is descriptive, thus imperfect.