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Updated on
5 Dec 2016
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French (France)
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Italian
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Portuguese (Brazil)
Question about French (France)
What is the difference between j'avais un chien and j'ai eu un chien ?Feel free to just provide example sentences.
What is the difference between j'avais un chien and j'ai eu un chien ?Feel free to just provide example sentences.
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- English (US) Near fluent
- Korean
j'avais is l'imparfait
j'ai eu is passé composé
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In this case, both ways mean basically that same, since it's implicit the idea that you had a dog for a certain period of time in the past.
But "J'avais" ('imparfait') is a past tense that conveys the idea of continuity, an action that happened many times, for an extended period of time in the past, while "j'ai eu" (passé composé) marks a single punctual action, that happened once and finished right after.
For example:
If I say "J'ai mangé un gâteau au chocolat", it means that I ate a chocolate cake in the past, and this action was punctual and is done.
If I say "Je mangeais du gâteau au chocolat", it means that I did it many times in the past, not only once, like in the previous example. It has continuity. That's why the "'imparfait" is commonly used to describe hobbies and habits in the past:
"Je marchais au parc tous les matins" (I used to walk in the park every morning)
"J'ai marché au parc" (I walked in the park (only once))
"Je jouais au foot quand j'étais petit" (I used to play football when I was little)
"J'ai joué au foot hier" (I played football yesterday - an action that happened only once, it's punctual)
The complement of the "'imparfait" usually marks the idea of continuity, something that happened many times in the past (i.e. quand j'étais petit : when I was young). While the complement of the "passé composé" marks the punctuality of the action (i.e. hier : yesterday).
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@123m just posting this again so that more people with the same doubt can undestand. Hopefully. Just ignore it, (since you've seen it already) 😁
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no i wont because it is really Nice of you and helpfull
🌸tnx again.
🌸tnx again.
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