flopticals

[silk pollen]

Please be patient

Our volunteers look into many questions every day; sometimes it takes them a little while to answer.

Pro tip: you can rename the thread title with `.tr <thread name>`

Make it descriptive, including relevant context, but also to the point. This way you improve your chances of getting a more relevant and specific answer.

[velvet slate]

No, because "je travaillais" exists (= I was working)
Well I guess it depends on how you pronounce the final vowel

je travaillais : ε
j'ai travaillé : e

[tardy violet]

i was using the passé simple because for my speaking exam i need to do a speech so using je travaillai makes it sound more posh

[velvet slate]

Oh my bad, didn't even think of passé simple. People will naturally assume you tried to use imparfait, since it's way more common. But it depends on the whole sentence and the context

As long as you're clear on when to use passé simple, you can make it work. It will sound literary though

[tardy violet]

yeah i mean my speech is about

the importance of charity work

[lilac sonnet]

it's not the most appropriate usage of it

l'imparfait would've worked perfectly

[tardy violet]

what if i said "L’année dernière mon ami et moi, nous travaillâmes dans un refuge pour les animaux en Kenya"
because im talking about a story and because the passe simple isn’t seen at gcse level french and i want to secure that grade 9

[lilac sonnet]

it sounds overly pretentious

it's generally not a tense used in speech

[tardy violet]

true

okay thanks