The two most common tenses to talk about the past in French are the imparfait and the passé composé more generally the past perfect tense. L’imparfait explains what was happening, with no indication of when or even if it ended. Passé composé announces what happened, actions that were completed. Examples: J’étais à l’école. I was at school. Je suis arrivé tôt. I arrived early. Je faisais mes devoirs. I was doing my homework.