imparfait

L'imparfait (the imperfect) is a French past tense. It describes states and actions that were ongoing or repeated in the past. The imperfect can correspond to the English simple past tense (I did, I went …), but also to structures such as used to and would and even the past progressive (I was doing, I was going …).

Imperfect Tense Instruction-

The imperfect is called such based on the Latin word imperfectus which means 'unfinished'. Its English counterpart would be: was ____ , was ____- ing or used to____.

You use the imparfait to show that an action 1) was a habitual past action OR 2) was happening when some other action interrupted it.

1. The imparfait is like "used to" in English.
2. The imparfait is like the past continuous tense in English (was doing something) I was eating my dinner last night when the telephone rang.

The passé composé is one of the first past tenses you should learn in French. It is used to speak about completed past actions. But we will also be looking at the imparfait, which is used to describe the context of a story (the weather, the people, the place etc.)

Generally, the passé composé is used to relate events while the imparfait is used to describe what was going on in the past, states of being in the past, or past habits. All this takes on special importance in narration of past actions, when both tenses often occur in the same story.

Imparfait vs Passé composé In a nutshell, the imparfait is used for incomplete actions while the passé composé is reserved for completed ones, but of course it's more complicated than that.

Q-Chat

• avant. before {Imparfait}
• habitude. usually {Imparfait}
• parfois. sometimes {Imparfait}
• souvent. often {Imparfait}
• toujours. always {Imparfait}
• tous les jours / chaque jour. every day {Imparfait}
• pendant que. while {Imparfait}
• autrefois. formerly.

The imparfait is formed by taking the first person plural form of the verb (i.e. the nous form) and removing the -ons ending, then adding the imparfait endings, which are -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, and -aient. If the verb is irregular in the present tense, it will keep the irregular stem in the imparfait.

Generally, the passé composé is used to relate events while the imparfait is used to describe what was going on in the past, states of being in the past, or past habits. All this takes on special importance in narration of past actions, when both tenses often occur in the same story.

The passé composé is one of the first past tenses you should learn in French. It is used to speak about completed past actions. But we will also be looking at the imparfait, which is used to describe the context of a story (the weather, the people, the place etc.)

Finally, while the imparfait is used to set a background or to describe a past context, the passé simple is clearly used to tell about actions that happened over that background.