Reminder:
The perfect and imperfect tenses are often used together when talking about the past.
The perfect tense is used to express actions fully completed with a clear start and finish, whereas the imperfect tense is used to describe routines, descriptions or what was happening at the time.
Ex: Je dormais profondément quand j'ai entendu un cri. = I was sleeping (imperfect) deeply when I heard (perfect) a scream.
Explanation: The act of sleeping was an ongoing action. It's what was happening at the time with no clear start so we use the imperfect. Then it was interrupted by a scream, which is a fully completed act, so 'heard' is in the perfect tense.
Ex: Je perdais toujours mes matchs de tennis mais un jour j'ai finalement gagné. J'étais tellement heureux. = I was always losing my tennis matches but one day I finally won. I was so happy.
Explanation: The act of losing matches was recurrent. The focus is not on when it was happening, but the fact that it happened repeatedly, so we use the imperfect. Then one day the person won. As winning is a single event which broke the 'habit' of losing it requires the perfect tense. Finally, the act of being happy is a description of the mood so we use the imperfect tense.
Test your understanding below with a quick starter question!