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L’IMPARFAIT L’usage . L’imparfait or the imperfect tense is used in French to describe actions or states of being that occurred over a period of time. The imperfect is different than the passé composé. The two tenses both describe past actions, however, they are not interchangeable.
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L’IMPARFAIT L’usage L’imparfait or the imperfect tense is used in French to describe actions or states of being that occurred over a period of time.
The imperfect is different than the passé composé. • The two tenses both describe past actions, however, they are not interchangeable
The endings of the imperfect are formed as follows: • You start with the nous form of any verb in French. • You take off the –ons ending of the verb • You add the following endings to the remaining stem: • -ais -ions • -ais -iez • ait -aient
For this example, we will use the verb parler • Start with the nous form – parlons • Remove the –ons • Add the following endings to the stem -parl: • Je parlais -nous parlions • Tu parlais -vous parliez • Il/elle/on parlait -ils/elles parlaient
The imperfect tense in French has several important uses. • It is used to set the scene, for example, if you are describing what the weather was like. Il faisait beau. • It is also used to describe repeated, habitual actions that took place in the past. It is equivalent to the English “used to”
Irregular forms of l’Imparfait • There is only on verb with an irregular stem in the imperfect tense – Être The forms of être are as follows: J’étais Nous étions Tu étais Vous étiez Il/Elle/On était Ils/Elles étaient These forms will simply have to be memorized!!
