What is the difference between passé composé and imparfait?

This is a very important question, thank you for raising it. Knowing the difference between these two tenses is fundamental in French. It may seem a little hard to grasp at first because the direct translation of both tenses in English can be tricky. But don't worry! Once you understand it, you'll always intuitively know which tense to use. The imparfait is used for ongoing events in the past, like habits. The passé composé, on the other hand, is used for one off events, so telling a story for instance.An example: 'I used to sing' is 'je chantais' (imperfect). Whereas the 'to sing' in English stays in the infinitive, in French the verb is conjugated. On the other hand, 'I sang' is the perfect tense and has a direct translation in French: 'j'ai chanté' (Passé Composé). When deciding wether or not to use the imparfait or passé composé, try to think about the context in which the verb is in, i.e. if you want to express an ongoing event in the past. Going back to our singing example, if you wanted to say 'I used to sing in the choir every monday', (something that occurred frequently in the past) you would use the imparfait: 'je chantais dans la chorale tous les lundis'. If you wanted to say 'I sang in the shower last night', (a one off event) you would use the passé composé: 'J'ai chanté dans la douche hier soir'.