In French, telling a story isn't just about what happened, but how it happened. Think of the imparfait and the passé composé as two different camera lenses. One is for wide, descriptive shots, and the other is for sharp, action-focused close-ups. You already know how to form them; now it's about using them together to create a vivid narrative, which is crucial for the TEF exam.

The imparfait is your wide-angle lens. It sets the scene, describes background conditions, and talks about habitual or ongoing actions in the past. It answers the question, “What was the situation like?”

Il faisait beau et les oiseaux chantaient. (The weather was nice and the birds were singing.)

This is pure description. Nothing specific happens. We're painting a picture of a general state of being in the past.

The passé composé, on the other hand, is your action lens. It captures specific, completed events that move the story forward. It answers the question, “Then what happened?”

J'ai vu un renard. (I saw a fox.)

This is a key event. It's a single, completed action that pushes the narrative along.

The real skill is blending them. You use the imparfait to set the stage and the passé composé to place the main actors and their actions on it. For the TEF writing task, this is how you build a compelling background for your story before the main events unfold.

One of the most common and powerful ways to combine these tenses is to show an ongoing action being interrupted by a sudden event. The ongoing background action is in the imparfait, and the interrupting action is in the passé composé.

Je lisais tranquillement quand le téléphone a sonné. (I was reading quietly when the phone rang.)

The reading (lisais) was an ongoing state. The phone ringing (a sonné) was the sudden, completed event that cut into that state. This structure is a classic storytelling device.

This isn't limited to dramatic interruptions. It also works for describing states versus actions. For example, state-of-being verbs like être (to be), avoir (to have, in the sense of possessing), and penser (to think) are often in the imparfait because they describe a continuous state, not a single action.

J'avais faim, alors j'ai préparé un sandwich. (I was hungry, so I made a sandwich.)

Being hungry (avais faim) is the background state. Making the sandwich (ai préparé) is the specific action taken because of that state. This is a key distinction between aspectual differences: the imparfait describes an unbounded duration, while the passé composé treats an action as a complete, bounded unit.

Certain adverbs and expressions are strong signals for which tense to use. They act as signposts in your narrative. Learning to recognize them will help you make the right choice quickly and naturally, both when writing and speaking.

Think of them as two families of words. One group emphasizes repetition, habit, or duration. The other emphasizes suddenness or a single occurrence.

For instance:

D'habitude, je prenais le bus. (Usually, I took the bus.) - Habitual action = imparfait.

Mais un jour, j'ai décidé de marcher. (But one day, I decided to walk.) - Single decision = passé composé.

In the TEF Section A speaking task, you might be asked to recount a personal experience. Starting your story by setting the scene with imparfait and words like d'habitude or à cette époque (at that time) shows a sophisticated command of narrative structure. Then, you can introduce the main event with a word like soudain and switch to the passé composé.

Time to practice combining these ideas.

Now, let's test your understanding of how to apply these concepts.

Building stories with these two tenses is a skill. The more you read and listen to French narratives, the more intuitive the rhythm between setting a scene and recounting key events will become.