"He had/lived a difficult life."
Should we use the imparfait or the passé composé in the translation?
Il avait/vivait une vie difficile.
Il a eu/vécu une vie difficile.
On the one hand, a life is over a long time period rather than a single instant, so it is conceivable that we should use the imparfait. But on the other hand, we are talking about a single event (even if it is an event that lasted for a long time), so by this reasoning we should use the passé composé. Which one is correct?
The context is we want to describe the life of a person, so the sentences around it could be the following:
Pierre est né en 1938 dans une famille pauvre. Il avait trois frères et quatre soeurs. Il ___ une vie difficile. Son père est mort quand il avait 5 ans.