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L’Imparfait

L’Imparfait. past tense. Uses of l’imparfait. Imparfait is used as a past tense in French Used to express actions and situations that: lasted for an indeterminate amount of time (Il avait beaucoup de l’argent)

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L’Imparfait

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  1. L’Imparfait past tense

  2. Uses of l’imparfait • Imparfait is used as a past tense in French • Used to express actions and situations that: • lasted for an indeterminate amount of time (Il avait beaucoup de l’argent) • occured an unspecified number of times (Elle allait a l’église chaque dimanche) • were in progress, when something else happened (Il pleuvait quand ils sont arrivés)

  3. Most important aspect of imparfait is the unlimited aspect. • You will use the imparfait if you do not know at what specific time the action you are describing took place, or how long it lasted. • Translated into English, it would look like “I was playing” or “I used to play” or “I would play” or “I played” - Habitual, repeated, ongoing or for an unlimited duration

  4. The Formation of L’imparfait The stem of all verbs in the imparfait with the exception of etre, is found by dropping the -ons ending from the nous form of the present tense. The imparfait (imperfect) endings are: -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient These endings apply to all verbs, regular or irregular

  5. Examples Parler Finir Entendre

  6. Note: The endings -ais, -ait and -aient all have the same pronunciation -cer verbs cédille in all forms except nous and vous Commencer -ger verbs insert an ‘e’ after the ‘g’ in all forms except nous and vous -ier verbs verbs with stems that end in ‘i’ (étudier) have a double ‘i’ in the nous and vous form

  7. The verbs ‘etre’ is the only verb which has an irregular stem (ét-) in the imparfait: J’étais Nous étions Tu étais Vous étiez il était Elles étaient Falloir, Pleuvoir, Neiger-do not exist in nous form and therefore, their stems are as follows: Il fallait Il pleuvait Il neigeait

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