Breakdown of Les pompiers sont arrivés pendant que je dormais.
je
I
arriver
to arrive
dormir
to sleep
pendant que
while
le pompier
the firefighter
Questions & Answers about Les pompiers sont arrivés pendant que je dormais.
Why is sont arrivés in the passé composé but dormais is in the imparfait?
This is a classic example of how to describe an interruption! We use the imparfait for the ongoing background action (je dormais, I was sleeping), and the passé composé for the specific event that happened in the middle of it (sont arrivés, arrived).
Why is it sont arrivés and not ont arrivé?
The verb arriver (to arrive) is one of the special verbs that requires être instead of avoir to form the passé composé. Because the subject les pompiers (the firefighters) is plural, we also add an -s to the past participle to make it arrivés.
Could I just use pendant instead of pendant que here?
How is the imparfait form dormais made from the verb dormir?
For almost all verbs, you find the imparfait stem by taking the present tense nous form. For dormir, that is nous dormons. You drop the -ons to get the stem dorm-, and then add the je ending for the imparfait, which is -ais.
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