An unexpected event in French: je travaillais quand…
You are working at home when Marc unexpectedly calls. Learn to separate what was already going on from what happened, then tell three events in order. Allow about twelve minutes, or twenty with repetition.
Recover two ways of looking at the past
J’ai travaillé hier means “I worked yesterday”: the passé composé presents the work as a completed whole. Je travaillais means “I was working” here: the imperfect gives the activity already in progress. It can also describe past habits in other contexts. The contrast is about how you present the situation, not a rule that long actions take one tense and short actions the other.
For this story, appeler means “call by telephone”; a appelé means “called”. Manger is “eat”; on a mangé means “we ate”. On means “we” here, with the singular verb a. You have also met arrival with être, as in est arrivé (“arrived”): the auxiliary depends on the verb.
J'ai travaillé hier.
Cooking, a link and two story signals
Faire means “do”; faire la cuisine means “cook, prepare a meal”. Cuisine here is the activity, not the room. Quand means “when” and links two parts of a sentence; it is not asking a question here. Puis means “then”, as does the card’s main word ensuite. Soudain means “suddenly”; soudainement on the card has the same meaning. We use puis and soudain in the story.
Faire → je fais → j’ai fait
The infinitive is faire. Je fais la cuisine means “I am cooking” in the present situation; in another context it can mean “I cook”. J’ai fait la cuisine means “I did the cooking”, viewed as a completed activity. The past uses ai + fait: fait is the irregular past participle, not faisé. Je becomes j’ before ai. French does not need a separate “am …-ing” form here. Listen to the two complete sentences and compare fais with fait.
Je fais / J’ai fait la cuisine
Je fais la cuisine.
J'ai fait la cuisine.
What was happening when the call came?
Je travaillais quand Marc a appelé means “I was working when Marc called”. Travaillais sets the background; a appelé presents the call as the event. Quand joins the two: the work was in progress at that moment. It does not tell us whether the work stopped permanently.
Soudain, Marc a appelé means “Suddenly, Marc called”. This is an alternative way to highlight the same call’s unexpected arrival, not a second call. Soudain adds surprise; it does not by itself choose the tense.
Je travaillais quand Marc a appelé.
Soudain, Marc a appelé.
One background, three events
Listen to the three lines as one story. The background is working. Event 1: Marc called. Event 2: I did the cooking. Event 3: we ate. Puis places each following event after the previous one. Repeating puis is enough for this short story; there is no need to learn a list of connectors.
Je travaillais quand Marc a appelé.
Puis, j'ai fait la cuisine.
Puis, on a mangé.
Recognize an earlier past: j’avais fait
For recognition only: J’avais fait la cuisine quand Marc a appelé means “I had done the cooking when Marc called”. Here the cooking was already finished before the call. Avais + fait is the plus-que-parfait. Contrast j’ai fait (“I did”) with j’avais fait (“I had done”). Do not practise forming this tense yet; the task below uses the two past tenses already explained.
J'avais fait la cuisine quand Marc a appelé.
Your turn: reconstruct the story
Before reading the answers, say in French: “I was working when Marc called. Then I did the cooking. Then we ate.” All the words and forms have appeared above. Check against the three lines and listen to them. Then replace the first line with two sentences using the same known words: Je travaillais. Soudain, Marc a appelé.
Keep the distinction: imperfect for the background as presented here, passé composé for the three events; quand links, soudain highlights surprise, puis moves to the next event. Faire la cuisine gives je fais in the present and j’ai fait for the completed activity.
Je travaillais quand Marc a appelé.
Puis, j'ai fait la cuisine.
Puis, on a mangé.