L’imparfait (The imperfect tense)
Le Passé Composé is used to describe completed actions of specific past events.
L’Imparfait is a past verb tense that is used to describe: What people or things were like Repeated or habitual actions in the past; what used to happen General conditions in the past; to tell what was going on Weather conditions
The imperfect can be translated as: …was/were ______(verb)______ ingor …used to ____(verb)___________
To form the imparfait: 1.Conjugate the verb in the present tense “nous” form. ex – regarder nous regardons 2. Drop the “-ons” to form the stem. regardons regard-
3. Then, add the following endings: je -ais tu -ais il/elle/on -ait nous -ions vous -iez ils/elles -aient
Examples: 1.écouter nous écoutons 2. stem écout
3. Add the following endings: j’écoutais tu écoutais il écoutais nous écoutions vous écoutiez elles écoutaient
Examples: Où est-ce que tu habitais avant? J’habitais à Chicago. Qu’est-ce que vous faisiez à six heures? Nous finissions nos devoirs.
The imperfect can be translated as: Where did you live before? I lived (used to live) in Chicago. What were you doing at 6? We were finishing our homework.
Irregular Stems in the Imperfect: être ét- avoir av-
Examples: 1. Quand j’étais jeune, ma famille habitait à la campagne. 2. Quand nous avions huit ans, ma soeur et moi, nous faisions du roller en ligne. Can you translate these into English?