Common mistakes
Passé simple or passé composé? Four traps when retelling a story
Compare literary narration with an everyday account. Fix four common tense assumptions, rewrite a short scene and check your choices.
- B2
- 4 corrections
- Examples and fixes
- Learn this in the B2 notebook →
In short
The passé simple is a familiar event tense in literary narrative: elle entra. The passé composé is the usual choice for an everyday account: elle est entrée, in conversation or writing. Both can describe the same event; genre and the narrator’s voice guide the choice.
Yellow the idea to rememberBlue French to learn
What is the difference between the passé simple and the passé composé?
Elle ouvrit le carnet, lut la note et sourit.She opened the notebook, read the note and smiled.
Focus: a literary narrator telling a sequence
La pièce était calme. Nora ouvrit le carnet.
The room was quiet. Nora opened the notebook.
Elle a ouvert le carnet, a lu la note et a souri.She opened the notebook, read the note and smiled.
Focus: an everyday account of the same sequence
La pièce était calme. Nora a ouvert le carnet.
The room was quiet. Nora opened the notebook.
- A written accountEvery event must be in the passé simpleMessages and reports commonly use the passé composé
Hier, j’ai reçu votre message et j’ai appelé Nora.Yesterday, I received your message and called Nora.
For an ordinary email, j’ai reçu and j’ai appelé fit naturally. The page or screen does not choose the tense.
- A distant dateAn old event automatically takes the passé simpleA spoken account can use the passé composé for remote events
Mon grand-père a quitté son village en 1948.My grandfather left his village in 1948.
The date tells us when the departure happened. The passé composé fits a family member telling the story today.
- The backgroundRetelling means changing every past verbKeep an ongoing scene in the imparfait
Il faisait froid quand Nora est entrée.It was cold when Nora came in.
In a literary version, Nora entra can replace Nora est entrée. The background il faisait froid can stay.
- The story’s voiceA novel has one compulsory event tenseA novel can tell events with the passé simple or the passé composé
Ce matin-là, j’ai compris pourquoi elle était triste.That morning, I understood why she was sad.
The passé composé also belongs in literary writing. Look at the surrounding passage to hear the narrator’s chosen voice.
Retell the events; keep the setting
Retell only the event verbs with the passé composé. Nora is a woman, so check the participle of entrer. Each option keeps the setting in the imparfait and changes the action; choose the requested compound tense.