Vous avez appris le passé composé et l'imparfait en français. vous allez apprendre quand utiliser le passé composé et l'imparfait dans une autre leçon mais que remarquez-vous maintenant? in english, compare and contrast these two tenses to the past tense in english. how are the past tenses in each language alike? how are they different?

In English, l'Imparfait tends to be the preterite or the past continuous. In French, it's used for long action (still occurring or not), description or story-telling. It's also more formal.
Le passé composé isn't use in French formal literature or texts, and that's the English equivalent of present perfect.
L'Imparfait is alike of his English equivalent because they approximately have the same value. But that's not the case for the passé composé, this is not used for assessment like in English.
Be careful, the preterite can also be Passé Simple in French.

Already answered but thanks