Past background and interrupted actions in French
French uses the imparfait to describe background situations and past habits, and often the passé composé to move a story forward. The imparfait can translate as was doing, used to do, or simply did, depending on context. Learn to choose the form by the action's role in the story rather than by its English translation alone.
Pendant que: while; à l’époque: back then
An ongoing background with pendant que
pendant que situation en cours, événement ponctuel.
Pendant que je lisais, quelqu’un a ouvert la porte.
Quelqu’un a ouvert la porte pendant que je lisais.
Describe background conditions with the imparfait
In “Il faisait froid quand on a ouvert la porte.”, faisait describes the weather in the background, while a ouvert presents the door-opening as an event. French uses faire for this weather expression, so do not translate English it was cold word for word. English was does not show the same distinction between background and completed situations that French past forms can show.
The imparfait also describes an action in progress: lisais can mean was reading without an extra verb corresponding to was. In these examples, on means we, a very common choice in spoken French, and takes a third-person singular verb.
Il faisait froid quand on a ouvert la porte.
Past habits with à l’époque and the imparfait
à l’époque activité répétée dans une période passée comprise.
À l’époque, je travaillais tous les samedis.
Je travaillais généralement le samedi à l’époque.
A repeated habit and one particular evening
In “À l’époque, on mangeait généralement à la maison, mais un soir, on est allés au restaurant.”, mangeait describes the usual habit and est allés presents a particular outing. English uses ate and went here, so its simple past alone does not tell you which French tense to choose. You do not need a separate French equivalent of used to: the imparfait and the context establish the habit.
With on meaning we, the auxiliary stays singular, est, while allés reflects a masculine or mixed group; an all-female group would use allées.
À l’époque, on mangeait généralement à la maison, mais un soir, on est allés au restaurant.
Back then, we usually ate at home, but one evening we went to a restaurant.
Overlapping activities, interruptions, and completed sequences
Pendant que places situations in the same time period; it does not automatically signal an interruption. In the reading example, lisais supplies the ongoing background and a ouvert supplies the event, without saying whether the reading stopped. The pendant que clause can come before or after the main clause.
In “On mangeait pendant que les enfants dormaient.”, both verbs are in the imparfait because both activities are presented as ongoing. In “J’ai lu le livre, puis je suis allé me coucher.”, the passé composé presents completed events in sequence. The final example uses allé for a male speaker; a female speaker writes allée.
On mangeait pendant que les enfants dormaient.
J’ai lu le livre, puis je suis allé me coucher.