French: Passe simple ou Passe compose

[ChocolateDrop]

When do you use either one of them?

I thought passe compose was for a completed action, but according to google search this is not the case?

I recently found out about the passe simple and according to google, this tense is used for completed actions.

Im confuzzled

[misshaha]

Usually you can differentiate between passé composé: completed actions and imparfait (incompleted actions), although this is overly simplified.

Passé simple is used instead of passé composé but in literature writing and this form is almost extinct.

If writing a story you would for instance say: Il nagea instead of il a nagé.

If you are doing French B I highly doubt you will come across this form.

Hoped this helped!

[ChocolateDrop]

Usually you can differentiate between passé composé: completed actions and imparfait (incompleted actions), although this is overly simplified.

Passé simple is used instead of passé composé but in literature writing and this form is almost extinct.

If writing a story you would for instance say: Il nagea instead of il a nagé.

If you are doing French B I highly doubt you will come across this form.

Hoped this helped!

Thank you, this helped a lot. So passe simple and and passe compose are interchangeable? Would it be wrong to use it in informal language? As in is it too formal?

[GirlwiththeBlueBox]

Passé simple is usually only used in textbooks or older French literature. Never never NEVER use it in informal language or else French people will think you're stupid/weird/foreign. Passé composé and passé simple are sort of interchangeable, but not really because one is considered the normal way and the other is extremely formal and not used very often. I wouldn't worry about it too much because, as the other poster pointed out, it's almost extinct. Chances are you won't have to learn it in French B.

[sarahlouise]

^ this. Passe simple is never used anywhere except novels pretty much. Our teacher was like 'I'll give you an introduction to it, but you'll never have to use it in IB'. Unless you're doing HL. But not for SL definitely.