The first one: Mais je fus bien surpris. It is in the passe simple, but in the passive conjugation.
The second one: Mais, j’etais bien surpris. It is in the Imparfait de l’indicatif also in the passive conjugation.
Correct explanation by the OzzyHellback and userstk.
Regarding Le petit prince, it’s funny, because a month ago I was reading it… but in japanese!
Very good book to start with. Lots of repetitions, so the vocabs sinks in.
They don’t exactly mean the same. The two tenses are different. The imparfait (j’étais) implies that the action lasts some time, whereas the passé simple (je fus) describes a punctual action.
In spoken language we use the passé composé (j’ai été) instead of the passé simple (je fus), which is (almost) only used in books.
I’ve never read Le Petit Prince in French, but I did in Spanish and Portuguese. It’s indeed a good book to start with!
Indeed it has been very enjoyable so far. I’ve only worked through the first 2 lessons, but I’m really enjoying the story. The fact that it is humorous also helps me to stay focused as well.
Thanks for the reply So in terms of spoken french I see I only really need to know the passe compose and the imparfait, and the passe simple is for written text.
I’m really enjoying the book so far!
Yes, it’s a different tense : le passé simple, here le passé simple for “être”. This tense is used only in writing, novels or narrative written texts.
It corresponds to the passé composé in the written field.