imparfait

Imparfait is a past tense in French used to describe actions that were ongoing, habitual, or repeated in the past, as well as background scenes, descriptions, or states. It is commonly contrasted with the passe compose, which marks completed past actions.

Formation and conjugation: For regular verbs, imparfait is formed by taking the first-person plural (nous) form of the present tense, removing the ending -ons, and adding the endings -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient. Examples: parler -> je parlais, nous parlions; finir -> je finissais; attendre -> j’attendais. This system uses the same endings for all verbs, though some verbs have irregular stems in the imparfait.

Irregular stems: Some verbs have stems that differ from the regular -ons form. Common examples include être, which becomes étais (j’étais, tu étais), av- for avoir (j’avais, tu avais), all- for aller (j’allais, nous allions), fais- for faire (je faisais). The endings remain the imparfait endings.

Usage notes: Imparfait is used for ongoing actions in the past, habitual actions, descriptions, and states in the past. It sets scenes or background information and often appears with expressions such as d’habitude, autrefois, souvent, toujours. When a past action interrupts another past action, the interrupting action is usually in passé composé, while the background action is in imparfait (exemple: Je lisais quand le téléphone a sonné).

Examples: Quand j’étais enfant, je faisais du vélo tous les jours. Il faisait beau et les oiseaux chantaient. Elle lisait lorsque le téléphone a sonné.