Homework Help: french 3

Posted by amanda on Tuesday, November 9, 2010 at 12:18am.

I understand that l'imparfait occurred habitually in the past, and passé composé happened only once.
However I'm not sure how to form this sentence:
Some thought his work was grotesque, others thought it was interesting.

Certains critiques ont pensé que son travail a été grotesque, mais autres ont pensé qu'il a été interessant.

OR

Certains critiques pensaient que son travail était grotesque, mais autres pensaient qu'il était interessant.

Is this even a valid question? Haha!
Merci!

french 3 - SraJMcGin, Tuesday, November 9, 2010 at 12:30am
intéressant

Of course it is a valid question! Often the speaker is the only one who can decide which to use - l'imparfait or le passé composé.

With the passé composé, it would imply either the first time they thought that or the last time they thought that or for a specific period of time (with time limits.)

With the imparfait, it implies that they were holding that thought.

Let's also look at the English translation. With the passé composé the English would be: they DID think that/they thought that

With the imparfait: they WERE thinkING that/they USED TO think that/they thought that.

Having both tenses in the past and distinguishing between them makes the French language so rich !

Sra (aka Mme)
french 3 - amanda, Tuesday, November 9, 2010 at 12:36am
Ah! Light bulb! Merci beaucoup!
And as for the 2 tenses in the past, I find conjugating fun, but not having to think about HOW to use them :)
french 3 - SraJMcGin, Tuesday, November 9, 2010 at 9:55am
Here is a picture you might have in mind.
For the passé composé someone is taking a snapshot or a series of snapshots = / / / / /

For the imperfect someone has the movie camera grinding away = ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sra (aka Mme)

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