Can the imparfait and the passé composé appear in the same sentence?

Constantly. That is the normal case, not an exception. Most French past narration alternates between them: the imparfait lays out the situation and the passé composé reports what happened in it. “Il pleuvait quand je suis sorti” is one situation and one event, and neither tense would work alone.

Is the imparfait always “was doing” in English?

No, and expecting it to be is the most common source of error. The imparfait covers the English past continuous (“was working”), the past habitual (“used to work”, “would work”) and plain descriptive pasts (“it was cold”, “she looked tired”). English splits across several forms what French handles with one.

Which tense goes with pendant?

The passé composé, in almost every case. “Pendant” states how long something lasted, which gives it a beginning and an end, and a bounded action takes the passé composé: “j’ai attendu pendant vingt minutes”. Use the imparfait after “pendant que”, which is a different word and introduces a background action.

What about the passé simple?

It does the same job as the passé composé, a completed past event, but only in writing: novels, history, journalism at its most formal. Nobody uses it when speaking, and you are never obliged to produce it. Recognising it when you read is enough until well into C1.

Which one to useB1

Imparfait vs passé composé

The short answer

Use the passé composé for a completed event that moves the story forward, and the imparfait for the situation around it: descriptions, states, and habits. If the sentence answers “what happened next?”, it takes the passé composé. If it answers “what was it like?” or “what used to happen?”, it takes the imparfait.

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At a glance

Passé composé or Imparfait?

Compare	Passé composéA completed event. It moves the story on.	ImparfaitAn ongoing situation. It sets the scene.
What it does in the story	Moves it forward	Fills in the background
Boundaries	The action starts and finishes	No start or finish in view
The question it answers	What happened?	What was it like? What used to happen?
Repetition	Once, or a stated number of times	Habitually, with no number attached
Two actions at once	The one that interrupts	The one already in progress
Time markers that pull it	hier, soudain, une fois, trois fois, puis, ce jour-là	toujours, souvent, tous les jours, à l’époque, pendant que
With savoir, vouloir, pouvoir, connaître	The moment it changed: j’ai su, “I found out”	The state itself: je savais, “I knew”

How to choose

Ask these, in order

1
Could you follow this verb with “and then what?”
It is an event. Passé composé.
Il a garé la voiture, puis il a appelé un taxi.
He parked the car, then called a taxi.
2
Is the verb saying what things were like, the weather, someone’s age, mood, appearance or opinion?
It is a description. Imparfait.
Il faisait nuit et la gare était déserte.
It was dark and the station was deserted.
3
Did it happen over and over, with no particular number of times?
It is a habit. Imparfait.
Le samedi, on allait au marché.
On Saturdays we used to go to the market.
NBAttach a number, on y est allés trois fois, and it stops being a habit and becomes an event, so it takes the passé composé.
4
Were two things going on, one cutting across the other?
The one already running takes the imparfait; the one that cuts in takes the passé composé.
Je dormais quand le téléphone a sonné.
I was asleep when the phone rang.
NBThe sleeping was already under way. The ringing is the event that arrives.

Side by side

Each one, in full

Passé composé

When to use the passé composé

A completed event. It moves the story on.

The passé composé reports. Each verb in it is a thing that happened, finished, and let the next thing happen, which is why a sequence of them reads as a narrative and why they are what you use to answer “what did you do yesterday?”.

A stated duration counts as a boundary. “Pendant six ans” names the beginning and the end of the period, so the verb is closed even though the period is long. This is the case learners most often get wrong in the other direction: length has nothing to do with it.

Elle a ouvert la porte, a pris son manteau et est sortie.

She opened the door, took her coat and went out.

NBThree events in sequence. Each one finishes before the next starts.

J’ai raté mon train ce matin.

I missed my train this morning.

Nous avons vécu à Berlin pendant six ans.

We lived in Berlin for six years.

NBSix years is long, but “pendant six ans” closes it. Duration is not the test; boundaries are.

Il a plu trois fois cette semaine.

It rained three times this week.

NBWeather usually takes the imparfait, but a counted number of occasions makes it an event.

Imparfait

When to use the imparfait

An ongoing situation. It sets the scene.

The imparfait describes. It gives you the state of things: the weather, the room, someone’s mood, what was already going on, without asking when any of it started or whether it has stopped. Nothing in an imparfait clause moves the story forward on its own.

It also carries habit. “Je travaillais dans un café” means you worked there repeatedly, as a matter of routine, and it is the ordinary French for the English “used to” and “would” of the past habitual.

Il faisait froid et la rue était vide.

It was cold and the street was empty.

NBTwo descriptions. Neither is an event; both are the scene the events happen in.

Quand j’étais étudiant, je travaillais dans un café le week-end.

When I was a student, I worked in a café at weekends.

Elle portait un manteau bleu et elle avait l’air pressée.

She was wearing a blue coat and looked in a hurry.

Je pensais que tu étais déjà parti.

I thought you had already left.

NBOpinions and mental states in the past are descriptions, so they take the imparfait by default.

Mistakes to avoid

What learners actually get wrong

Quand j’étais petit, j’ai joué au foot tous les samedis.
Quand j’étais petit, je jouais au foot tous les samedis.
“Tous les samedis” makes it a habit with no fixed number of occasions, and habits take the imparfait. The passé composé would say you played on some countable set of Saturdays and then stopped.
J’habitais à Lyon pendant trois ans.
J’ai habité à Lyon pendant trois ans.
“Pendant trois ans” closes the period, so the verb needs the closed tense. Using the imparfait leaves the stay open-ended, which contradicts the boundary the sentence has just given.
Quand j’ai vu son visage, je savais tout de suite ce qui s’était passé.
Quand j’ai vu son visage, j’ai su tout de suite ce qui s’était passé.
Savoir in the imparfait means “knew” as a standing state; in the passé composé it means “found out”, at a moment. “Tout de suite” names that moment, so the passé composé is the only reading that fits. Vouloir, pouvoir and connaître shift the same way.
Il y avait un accident au carrefour.
Il y a eu un accident au carrefour.
English “there was” covers both a scene and an event; French does not. “Il y avait un accident” describes a situation you arrived to find, while “il y a eu un accident” reports the crash happening.

Now use it

Passé composé vs imparfait

One-off event or background scene? Choose the tense each sentence needs. Reading a rule and being able to apply it are different skills, and only one of them shows up when you speak.

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Questions

Asked and answered

Can the imparfait and the passé composé appear in the same sentence?: Constantly. That is the normal case, not an exception. Most French past narration alternates between them: the imparfait lays out the situation and the passé composé reports what happened in it. “Il pleuvait quand je suis sorti” is one situation and one event, and neither tense would work alone.
Is the imparfait always “was doing” in English?: No, and expecting it to be is the most common source of error. The imparfait covers the English past continuous (“was working”), the past habitual (“used to work”, “would work”) and plain descriptive pasts (“it was cold”, “she looked tired”). English splits across several forms what French handles with one.
Which tense goes with pendant?: The passé composé, in almost every case. “Pendant” states how long something lasted, which gives it a beginning and an end, and a bounded action takes the passé composé: “j’ai attendu pendant vingt minutes”. Use the imparfait after “pendant que”, which is a different word and introduces a background action.
What about the passé simple?: It does the same job as the passé composé, a completed past event, but only in writing: novels, history, journalism at its most formal. Nobody uses it when speaking, and you are never obliged to produce it. Recognising it when you read is enough until well into C1.