Guest TheMagical7 Posted August 24, 2016 Report Share Posted August 24, 2016 Dear French People, What is the fine line that separates the usage of il y a eu and il y avait? Apparently it is preferable to use the imperfect tense in cases like this according to my teacher, but we don't know what separates it. Thanks. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CkyBlue Posted August 25, 2016 Report Share Posted August 25, 2016 In short, PC is used for actions that have been completed, no longer being done, and happening at a certain point in time. IMP tense is used for description(describing a thing, or a place), habits(e.g. doing something every Monday) , or something that happened with no indication of it being finished. I suggest you look up an article about how and when to use both tenses; a Google search would more likely than not yield better information for you than the community. This one sums it up well I think: https://www.lawlessfrench.com/grammar/passe-compose-vs-imparfait/ Hope this helps! 1 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest TheMagical7 Posted August 26, 2016 Report Share Posted August 26, 2016 Hmm, that's not quite what I wanted to understand. The site does, however, mention that the imperfect tense of avoir and etre is more widely used than that of the past tense. Why is this? Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
poweroverwhelming Posted September 4, 2016 Report Share Posted September 4, 2016 (edited) On 8/26/2016 at 1:36 AM, TheMagical7 said: Hmm, that's not quite what I wanted to understand. The site does, however, mention that the imperfect tense of avoir and etre is more widely used than that of the past tense. Why is this? I'd say that's probably because whereas P.C. is used with activities that lasted for a precise period of time, imparfait is used with activities that lasted for an indefinite period of time. I'd say P.C. is used less often than imparfait because the things we do as humans aren't always set in stone between X date and Y date. There's often some uncertainty or ambiguity in what we do. I think this link might clarify the distinction between P.C. and imparfait for you: http://forum.wordreference.com/threads/fr-il-y-avait-il-y-a-eu.502219/ Or to put it another way, "Il y a eu" is used when an action points to a specific date or emphasizes the fact that the action was short-lived. "Il y avait" emphasizes that the action lasted for a while. Hope this helps you out. Cheers and good luck! Edited September 4, 2016 by poweroverwhelming Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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