Accueil › Telling stories: the past
Telling stories: the past
“How was your weekend?” is the most common conversation in the world, and answering it well is the single biggest thing this whole site can give you. Two past tenses share the work — here’s the practical version, without the grammar-book fog.
The one idea
Think of a story as a film. The events — things that happened, one after another — are the passé composé: je suis allée, on a mangé, j’ai vu. The scenery behind them — weather, moods, how things were — is the imparfait: il faisait beau, j’étais crevée, c’était génial. Events move the camera; scenery is what it sees.
Listen first: the Monday debrief
A whole weekend story in eight lines. Play it, shadow it, then look for the two layers — events and scenery.
What happened — passé composé
The recipe you mostly know: j’ai / t’as / on a + the participle. These are the weekend sentences to have ready:
“I saw a great film.”
“We ate too much, as usual.”
“I went to some friends’ place.” — aller takes être, and you add the extra -e because you’re a woman: allée.
“I did nothing, and it was perfect.” A completely legitimate weekend report in France.
Most verbs travel with avoir. A small club — basically the coming-and-going verbs — travels with être instead:
| Être verb | You say | |
|---|---|---|
| aller | je suis allée au marché | |
| partir | on est partis tôt | |
| venir | Léa est venue dîner | |
| rester | je suis restée à la maison | |
| rentrer | on est rentrés à minuit |
🇩🇪 This is just the Perfekt
You’ve done all this before, in German. J’ai mangé = ich habe gegessen; je suis allée = ich bin gegangen. Even the two helper verbs match: movement and change take être/sein, the rest take avoir/haben. If you’d say bin in German, you almost certainly say suis in French.
The scenery — imparfait
Here’s the good news: for chatting, you don’t need to conjugate the imparfait across every verb. Four ready-made chunks cover most of real life:
| Chunk | Use it for | |
|---|---|---|
| c’était… | verdicts: c’était génial / sympa / nul | |
| y’avait… | what was there: y’avait plein de monde | |
| il faisait… | weather: il faisait super beau / froid | |
| j’étais… | your state: j’étais crevée / contente |
What people actually say
Listen to any French person describe their weekend: it’s c’était and y’avait doing 80% of the scenery work. Master those two and you can already paint the background of any story. The imparfait also covers past habits — « quand j’étais petite, j’habitais à Zurich » — a pattern worth learning whole.
Put it together: a 20-second story
Events in passé composé, scenery in imparfait. Read it aloud until it flows as one:
Event — the story starts moving.
Scenery — weather and crowds behind the action.
Two more events — du coup gluing them on.
Close with a verdict — bref + c’était is how French stories land.
Your turn
Tell it out loud first — then reveal a natural version.
Say what you did last night (nothing fancy — a series, a quiet one).
The party was great and there were loads of people. Give the two-chunk verdict.
You stayed in on Saturday because you were exhausted. One event + one bit of scenery.
Tell someone that when you were little, you lived in Zurich.
Quick check
Events or scenery? The explanations do the teaching.
Coming & going: aller, venir, arriver, partir, entrer, sortir, monter, descendre, rester, rentrer, retourner, tomber — plus being born and dying (naître, mourir), and every reflexive verb (je me suis couchée). If you forget one mid-sentence, don’t panic — you’ll be understood either way.
With être, the participle agrees with the subject like an adjective: il est allé, elle est allée, elles sont allées. Out loud they all sound identical — this is a writing thing. Speaking, you get it right for free; just remember the -e when you text.
English has three pasts (“I ate”, “I have eaten”, “I was eating”). Spoken French pours the first two into one: j’ai mangé. Don’t hunt for a “have eaten” form — it doesn’t exist in conversation. (“I was eating” is the imparfait: je mangeais.)