1 / 10

The Imperfect Tense

The Imperfect Tense. The Imperfect Tense is used in three different ways:. 1. to describe an action that was in the process of taking place, e.g. I was watching je regardais She was listening elle é coutait We were talking nous parlions

brent-workman
Download Presentation

The Imperfect Tense

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. The Imperfect Tense The Imperfect Tense is used in three different ways: 1. to describe an action that was in the process of taking place, e.g. I was watching je regardais She was listening elle écoutait We were talking nous parlions They were singing ils chantaient

  2. The Imperfect Tense 2. When something used to be the case or happened regularly in the past, e/g: I used to go there every week. j’y allais toutes les semaines. They used to visit us. Ils nous rendaient visite. I used to eat pasta every day. Je mangeais des pâtes tous les jours. I went to the beach. J’allais à la plage.

  3. The Imperfect Tense 3. When describing something in the past, e.g: The sky was blue. Le ciel était bleu. The sun was shining. Le soleil brillait. It was brilliant. C’était génial! The birds were singing. Les oiseaux chantaient. It was raining. Il pleuvait.

  4. The Imperfect Tense How to construct the Imperfect Tense: 1. Take the “nous” form of the PRESENT TENSE of any verb (regular or irregular) (except “être”), e.g : Nous parlons Nous jouons Nous choisissons Nous vendons Nous faisons

  5. The Imperfect Tense Remove the “ons” to find the imperfect stem of the verb, e.g: Nous parlons parl Nous jouons jou Nous choisissons choisiss Nous vendons vend Nous faisons fais 2.

  6. The Imperfect Tense 3. Add the appropriate endings to the stem, e.g: je ais ions nous tu iez ais vous ils/elles ait aient il/elle/on

  7. The Imperfect Tense Here’s how its done: 1. Take the “nous” form of the present tense: Nous regardons 2. Remove the “ons”, leaving the stem: regard Add the appropriate ending: 3. nous regard ions ais je regard iez ais vous regard tu regard aient il/elle/on regard ait ils/elles regard

  8. The Imperfect Tense • Now try some examples for yourself. Translate the following sentences into French. Take care, some of the verbs are irregular! • I was singing (chanter). • She used to dance (danser). • We used to work (travailler). • It was sunny (faire du soleil). • They were crying (pleurer).

  9. The Imperfect Tense • I was drinking (boire). • She used to write (écrire). • He had a headache (avoir mal à la tête). • She was leaving (partir). • He was having his lunch (déjeuner).

  10. The Imperfect Tense The only irregular verb in the imperfect tense is “être” and it looks like this: j’étais nous étions tu étais vous étiez il/elle/on était ils/elles étaient

More Related