#.incoherent.
hallow plume
jaunty sonnet
hi 
do you know how conjugation works? (just so I don't assume anything before explaining)
ember pollen
Yup!
ember pollen
do you know about passé composé and imparfait then?
Yes I know that voulu is passé and voulais is imparfait I’m just confused on when to use which
jaunty sonnet
to be precise, the conjugations are
"j'ai voulu" ("ai" is part of the conjugation)
"je voulais"
are you confused about when to use passé composé vs imparfait or about vouloir specifically?
ember pollen
Vouloir specifically
The thing that I am confused on is that both mean I wanted, but they are used in different situations, and I am not sure which situations those are
jaunty sonnet
so, there actually are cases where they overlap, and cases where they don't
it does follow the general differences between the two tenses
for elongated actions, for instance something you wanted for a long time and acts as context, you should use imparfait.
"quand j'étais petit, je voulais devenir footballer" (when I was a kid, I wanted to become a footballer)
for one time events, for instance when you have a thought or wanna try something in the heat of the moment, you should use passé composé.
"le vase est tombé, j'ai voulu le rattraper" (The vase fell, and I tried to catch it)
-# note how it even translates to "try" here
the cases where you can actually use both is when you're talking about what you were thinking with what you did just now, as it could be interpreted as either
"désolé, je voulais pas dire ça"
"désolé, j'ai pas voulu dire ça" (sorry, I didn't mean to say that)
ember pollen
Sorry if this is confusing, but I’m doing a like “trip” assignment. One of the questions is “Why did you choose to go there” and I want to answer “I’ve always wanted to go there.” The trip is already completed (I went on it) but I’m talking about my long term desire to go there
Which one would I use
jaunty sonnet
right, so you're right this is a tricky case
here, "toujours" (always) has a lot of weight. It basically acts as a single point in time. Meaning you only did the action (of wanting to go) at one point in time, which is always. It thus translates to passé composé
if it wasn't for "toujours", you could be setting it up as context, which would actually use imparfait
ember pollen
So would it be J’ai toujours voulu y aller
jaunty sonnet
yes
ember pollen
Okay thank you so much!
jaunty sonnet
note: if you're using imparfait with "toujours", it instead conveys a recurring action, trying to do it on a regular basis
je voulais toujours y aller => I kept wanting to go there
jaunty sonnet
imparfait doesn't really denote incomplete actions
but recurring actions, habits
or sets up context as an undefined in time, long term action