"His father had as many pairs of spectacles as mine did."

Translation: Son père avait autant de paires de lunettes que le mien.

[Daniel199309]

Sorry for my (quite likely) silly question, but why can't we use passé composé here?

[MitchellWe485525]

I have the same question.

[msinykin]

The mapping between the various English and French past tenses is not clear cut, and it seems like Duo will accept either in many cases.

This article:
https://www.lawlessfrench.com/grammar/passe-compose-vs-imparfait/
lists a number of rules, all of which seem to point to the imparfait for this sentence.

There is also a discussion on the Duo forums here: https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/17567672/Imparfait-vs-Passé-Composé

[mplscurt]

I translated it as "aussi beaucoup" rather than "autant." This is wrong?

[Katharine995402]

why isn't it les miennes because pairs of eyeglasses is plural

[relox84]

"Le mien" here refers to "my father", which is why it's masculine singular.

[lmparis49]

is 'de paires' necessary ? Can't we just say lunettes ?

[msinykin]

Depends on how literally you want to translate "pairs of spectacles". Duo seems to want it literal.