However, with the following tips and examples on how to use the imparfait to describe the past, you’ll start to see the difference more clearly. Because English doesn’t distinguish between situations requiring the imperfect and perfect tenses as clearly, it’s often difficult to know when to use the French imperfect as opposed to the passé composé when talking about events in the past. Mastering the French imparfait takes a bit of memorization, like other verb tenses, but more importantly it takes a lot of exposure to different examples to get the hang of it. I used to enjoy parfaits now I prefer just plain yogurt. J’ aimais les parfaits, maintenant je préfère le yaourt nature. The imperfect tense is generally used for descriptions of past events or actions without a specific endpoint in time. The Imparfaitis also used to describe two simultaneous past actions: Il parlait au téléphone pendant que je faisais la cuisine ( He was talking on the telephone while I was cooking.).The two most common tenses to talk about the past in French are the imparfait (“imperfect”) and passé composé (literally “composite past,” but more generally the “past perfect” tense).When I was young, I used to live in Montreal. Quand j'étais jeune, j'habitais à Montréal. Another use of the imparfait is to describe a state of being or an action that existed at some time in the past without indicating a specific beginning or end.In the latter sentences in which the verbs are in the passé composé, the actions were performed once, whereas in the examples in which the verbs are in the imparfait, the actions took place repeatedly in the past. Pierre est rentré à la maison vers cinq heures. Ĭompare these examples with the following which are very similar except that the verbs are in the passé composé. Pierre used to return home around 5 o'clock. Pierre rentrait à la maison vers cinq heures. It tells what you used to do or would do repeatedly. The imparfait describes actions that occurred habitually in the past.This is done to preserve the soft c sound. When conjugating verbs whose infinitive ends in c e r, such as commencer and placer, place a cedilla under the c before all endings except the first and second-person plural: je commençais, tu plaçais, but vous commenciez.This is done to preserve the soft g sound. When conjugating verbs whose infinitive ends in g e r, such as manger and voyager, place an e before all endings except the first and second-person plural: je mangeais, tu voyageais, but vous mangiez.The only irregular verb in the Imparfait is être.Did you notice the two i's in the nous and vous forms of étudier? This happens in all verbs whose infinitive ends in i e r. He, she, one used to speak, was speaking -įollowing are a few more examples. You - familiar- used to speak, were speaking. Listen carefully to your screen reader pronounce the verb parler conjugated in the Imparfait. All of the singular and the third-person plural endings are pronounced the same way. Add the following endings to the stem: a i s, a i s, a i t, i o n s, i e z, a i e n t.The stem consists of the first-person plural ( nous) form of the present tense without the o n s ending.In this module we will study another past tense, the Imparfait ( the Imperfect), which is easy to learn because there is only one irregular verb ( être).
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