Bonjour mes amis,
We will learn some more about the past tense. As you may well know, the past tense is used to indicate an action that occured in the past (hmm, pretty obvious, hey! -))
In French, we have three main tenses expressing actions of the past, two of which are simple tenses. These are L’IMPARFAIT, the PASSÉ SIMPLE (both simple tenses), and the PASSÉ COMPOSÉ (a compound tense). But here, we choose to study the L’IMPARFAIT (imperfect).
What is L’IMPARFAIT in French, and what is used for?
- L’imparfait is, first of all, a simple tense (that is, it doesn’t need an auxiliary –être / avoir– to be conjugated).
- Secondly, l’imparfait is a verb tense that indicates how things used to be in the past. The question to ask for the imparfait is: What was going on back then?or How things used to be in the past? These questions call for the use of the French imparfait.
- As a logical consequence of the 2 questions stated above, l’imparfait is used in French to express habitual actions that happened in the past.
- Often, l’imparfait will also be used in lieu of “would” in English, as in “Roger would get up very early every Sunday when he was a kid” ? (“Roger se levait très tôt le matin tous les dimanches quand il était petit”)
French Imperfect Conjugations – Learn to use the endings.
TIP: To easily master the conjugation of any verb in the imperfect, remember to do the following:
- First, use the nous form of this verb in the present tense.
- Then drop the ending (of the present) and add the corresponding ending of the imperfect tense
See the chart below for examples.
| Subject Pronouns | endings | parler | finir | vendre | étudier | manger | être |
| → parl - | → finiss - | → vend - | → étudi - | → mange - | → ét - | ||
| je/j’
tu il/elle/on nous vous ils/elles |
ais
ais ait ions iez aient |
parlais
parlais parlait parlions parliez parlaient |
finissais
finissais finissait finissions finissiez finissaient |
vendais
vendais vendait vendions vendiez vendaient |
étudiais
étudiais étudiait étudiions étudiiez étudiaient |
mangeais
mangeais mangeait mangions mangiez mangeaient |
étais
étais était étions étiez étaient |
Note: These verbs: PARLer, FINir, VENDre and their likes have regular stems by default.
Some examples of sentences in French including l’imparfait and how to translate them into English.
| FRENCH | ENGLISH |
|---|---|
| Emily used to live in Montreal in the 70s | Émilie vivait à Montréal dans les années 70 |
| I went to her place when I was a child | J’allais chez elle quand j’étais enfant |
| Emily used to cook delicious meals | Émilie cuisinait des plats délicieux |
| I was always very pleased to visit her. | J’étais toujours très content de lui rendre visite. |
| She came to see you often? | Elle venait te voir souvent? |
| We used to sing in the choir. | Nous chantions dans la chorale. |
| We had no money when we were young. | Nous n’avions pas d’argent quand nous étions jeunes. |
| You used to like soccer, didn’t you?. | Tu aimais le football, n’est-ce pas? |
thak you so much for making learning french for me, less complicated. Keep up the good work.
je travallais dans un hotel a Hongkong quand j’etais 24 ans, oh, c’etait tres formidable je vivrait en ma toute familles avec mes cousines, mes copains et un de mes voisines… il est tres sympha. merci!