Correction: "Je sais que tous les deux veulent dire" - "mais je ne sais pas faire la différence". C'était > action passée - utilisée le plus souvent (most often used) Ce fut > action passée employée de manière littéral (not often used, just for describe litteraly something)

It's: "je sais que tout les deux veulent dire "it was", mais je ne sais pas qu'elle est la différence.." The verb is être = to be. "Fut" is the 3rd person singular of the "passé simple", and "était" is the 3rd person singular of the "imparfait". The first difference is that "le passé simple" is only ever used in formal (literary) writing, where as imparfait is a tense that is also used in everyday speech. The second difference is that imparfait is used to describe different past things. Have a look on these notes please :) http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/passesimple.htm http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/advpasttenses.htm

In short : c'était = how people say it. ce fut = how books speak.