How do you say "I was there last week" in French?

Question

Is it J'etais là la semaine derniere (with imperfect) or,

J'ai été là la semaine derniere (with passé composé)

Answer 1

I think it'll depend on the rest of the sentence really.

J'étais là la semaine dernière = personally  i understand that i'm talking about a place that i'm also right now,it's to the point.

J'ai été là la semaine derniere = it's more like you're describing a place from  a map,or magazine ,or movie,in my opinion

J' y étais la semaine dernière = to me it  described an action that happen last week and i was there like a "manifestation".

Hope it'll help you,good question.

Answer 2

J'étais là la dernière semaine

Answer 3

I'd use the imperfect, but both are possible.

Another version would be: "J’y étais la semaine dernière" or "J’y ai été la semaine dernière".

It gets rid of those awkward repetitions of "la"

Answer 4

French, especially spoken, isn't has strict as English with regards to past tenses. Most of the times you can use "imparfait" or "passé composé". In that sentence "être" can only be used with "imparfait" :

IMPARFAIT

J'étais là la semaine dernière

J'étais là-bas la semaine dernière

J'y étais la semaine dernière

but if you were there, that means you went there (and you came back):

PASSE COMPOSE

J'y suis allé la semaine dernière

Answer 5

J'y ai été la semaine dernière.

The verb être would be in the passé composé rather than in the imparfait because the action has been completed.  I think you would use "y" as an adverbial pronoun for there rather than use "là", as some others might want to do, because "là" kind of makes it implicit that the person speaking means "over there" or "beyond".  On the other hand, the verb "être" is almost always used in the imparfait tense, so you could get away with forms such as "J'y étais", and using "là" with it would sound better than repeating the e sound.  However, you would have to say, "J'y ai voyagé", I think.

If someone with a name like Pascal says so, he probably knows what he is talking about; however, I am still not sure using the other form is incorrect.