L’imparfait Français II H – Unité Préliminaire A Structures
L’imparfait In English, the imperfect tense refers to actions or conditions in the past that were ongoing, that occurred regularly, or that were going on when another event occurred. (Remember that passé composé was used when talking about specific events that occurred with a definite start and finish)
In English, you say that an action or event occurred regularly in the past by using the words use to or would. During the week, she would get up at 7:00. My brother and I used to call each other often.
In French, you use the imperfect tense or l’imparfait for the following reasons: 1.To describe an ongoing past action with no reference to its beginning or end. 2.To express habitual or repeated past actions and events. 3.To describe mental, physical, and emotional states or conditions.
How to form the imparfait To form the stem of the imperfect tense, drop the –ons ending from the nous form of the verb in the present tense. The imperfect stems of regular –er, -re, and –ir verbs are as follows: chanter: nous chantons chant- attendre:nous attendons attend- choisir:nous choisissons choisiss-
Irregular verbs The imperfect stems of irregular verbs also come from the nous form of the verb in present tense. avoir: nous avons av- aller: nous allons all- faire: nous faisons fais- prendre: nous prenons pren- *Notice that the imperfect stem of the verb être is not based on the nous form. être: nous sommesét-
To the stems, you add the following imparfait endings Je -aisnous -ions Tu -aisvous -iez Il -aitils -aient Elle -aitelles -aient On -ait
Example sentences with l’imparfait Quand j’étais jeune, j’étais petite. Quand tu étais jeune, tu étais petit aussi. Il habitait avec ses parents. Elle avait un chien. Nous parlions tous le temps. Vous faisiez les devoirs après le dîner. Ils avaient mal à la tête. Elles allaient à l’école chaque jour.