Imperfect Tense
There are three major groups of regular verbs which can be told apart by their ending. These simple forms of the verb are called infinitives.
-ER verbs (e.g. regarder)
-IR verbs (e.g. finir)
-RE verbs (e.g. vendre)
There are some verbs which have minor but predictable irregularities.
Unfortunately, some verbs are completely irregular and unpredictable – you will have to learn these individually.
The Imperfect tense is used in the following cases:
Using the IMPERFECT
To describe what something was like in the past:
La maison était énorme et avait trois fenêtres.
To describe the weather in the past: Il faisait très beau.
To give an opinion in the past: C’était magnifique.
To talk about something that used to happen regularly in the past:
Quand j’avais 5 ans, je mangeais trop de bonbons.
To make excuses: Ce n’était pas de ma faute. Je voulais aider!
To saying what was happening in the past, when something else happened;
on-going action eg. I was eating = imperfect tense
sudden action eg. (when) he entered = perfect tense (passé composé)
Je lisais le journal quand mon père est entré dans le salon.
Ma mère travaillait dans le jardin, quand le téléphone a sonné.
Forming the IMPERFECT
To form the Imperfect we take the NOUS form of the present tense,
and take off the –ons to get the imperfect stem (eg. nous parlons; nous finissons).
To this stem we add the endings as follows:
je -ais je parlais (I was speaking/used to speak)
tu -ais tu parlais (You were speaking/used to speak)
il/elle/on -ait il parlait (He was speaking/used to speak)
nous -ions nous parlions (We were speaking/used to speak)
vous -iez vous parliez (You were speaking/used to speak)
ils/elles -aient ils parlaient (They were speaking/used to speak)
EXCEPTIONS:
être j’étais, tu étais, il était, nous étions, vous étiez, ils étaient
manger je mangeais, tu mangeais, il mangeait, nous mangions, vous mangiez, ils mangeaient
commencer je commençais, tu commençais, il commençait, nous commencions,
vous commenciez, ils commençaient