Imparfait endings construit how to#
Imparfait endings construit movie#
Imparfait endings construit plus#

Note that in a lot of cases, particularly for regular -er and -ir verbs, the stem of the infinitive and of the first-person présent conjugations are identical. This past tense in French is formed by taking the stem from its first-person plural présent conjugation, and appending the following endings: Subject Now that we’ve covered the contexts where we use imparfait French, let’s go over its conjugation.

Le soleil brillait quand elle s’est réveillée.

– The building was in a state of neglect when I inspected it.

Le bâtiment était dans un état de délabrement quand je l’ai inspecté.

– The girl I saw at the lake had dark thick hair.

La fille que j’ai vue au lac avait les cheveux noirs épais.

– I felt happy to see you had escaped the attack unharmed.

Je sentais heureuse de voir que tu avais échappé à l’attaque indemne.

– He was in a bad mood when he returned from work last night.

Il était de mauvaise humeur quand il est rentré du travail hier soir.

– She believed in the tooth fairy when she was younger.

Imparfait endings construit plus#

Quand elle était plus jeune, elle croyait à la petite souris.

– He used to drink a glass of his favorite wine each evening.

Chaque soir, il buvait un verre de son vin préféré.

Past habits or actions carried out continuously in the past – I was mowing the lawn when a storm broke out.

Je tondais la pelouse quand un orage a éclaté.

Imparfait endings construit movie#

– We were watching a movie when Ellen called. Nous regardions un film quand Ellen a appelé.– Tim was reading and his mother was baking a cake.Īn activity which was ongoing when another occurred Tim lisait et sa mère cuisinait un gâteau.– The puppy was eating lunch while the kitten was playing.

Le chiot déjeunait pendant que le chaton jouait.

Note that the passé composé is also present in many of these examples, so you can see the difference in when each should be used. In this section we’ll cover some of the contexts where we’ll use imparfait French rather than the passé composé, with plenty of examples. L’imparfait is a form of past tense in French mainly used to describe continuous actions, repetitive actions, or existing states. Let’s get started! When to use the French imparfait tense

Imparfait endings construit how to#

In this post we’ll take a close look at the French imparfait, starting with when and how to use it, and then going into imparfait conjugation for both regular and irregular French verbs. In both languages, we use this tense to talk about something that was continuous or ongoing, rather than an event that started and finished. This English version is known as the past continuous or past progressive tense. One of the key differences between the imperfect tense in French and its equivalent in English is the fact that in French we express the tense with a single word, while in English you use a compound construction with “was / were + -ing” (as in, “you were walking while I was talking”). The other main past tense in French is the passé composé. Imparfait French, also referred to as the French imperfect tense, is one of the main tenses relating to past events.