L'Imparfait (The Imperfect Tense)

L'imparfait is a past tense in French used to describe ongoing or repeated actions in the past. It's essential for storytelling and discussing past situations, especially in writing. In English, it can be translated as "was doing," "used to do," or simply "did" depending on the context.

When to Use L'Imparfait

The imperfect tense is used in the following situations:

1. To describe a situation in the past: "Quand il était petit, Lucas aimait beaucoup les gâteaux." (When he was little, Lucas really liked cakes.)
2. To describe a person, characteristic, comment, or explanation in the past: "Lucas était un enfant très gourmand." (Lucas was a very greedy child.)
3. To talk about a repeated action in the past: "Tous les jours, il faisait un gâteau avec son amie Florence." (Every day, he would make a cake with his friend Florence.)
4. To talk about simultaneous actions in the past: "Pendant qu'il regardait la recette, Florence préparait la pâte." (While he was looking at the recipe, Florence was preparing the dough.)
5. To emphasize the duration of an action: "Ils cuisaient le gâteau puis mangeaient une part au dessert." (They would bake the cake and then eat a slice for dessert.)

How to Form L'Imparfait

To conjugate a verb in l'imparfait, take the "nous" (we) form of the present tense, remove the -ons ending, and add the following endings:

Irregular Verbs and Exceptions

Most verbs follow this pattern, but there are some exceptions:

1. The verb "être" (to be) is irregular in l'imparfait: j'étais, tu étais, il/elle/on était, nous étions, vous étiez, ils/elles étaient
2. For verbs ending in -cer, keep the ç before a and o to maintain the soft sound: "lancer" (to throw) → je lançais, tu lançais, il lançait, nous lancions, vous lanciez, ils lançaient
3. For verbs ending in -ger, add an e after the g before a and o to keep the soft sound: "manger" (to eat) → je mangeais, tu mangeais, il mangeait, nous mangions, vous mangiez, ils mangeaient
4. The verbs "falloir" (to be necessary) and "pleuvoir" (to rain), which are only used in the 3rd person singular, are conjugated as follows: falloir → il fallait (it was necessary) pleuvoir → il pleuvait (it was raining)

Common Irregular Verbs in L'Imparfait

While most verbs follow a regular pattern in l'imparfait, some commonly used verbs have irregular forms. Here's a table of the most frequent irregular verbs in l'imparfait:

These verbs, although irregular, still follow the general pattern of l'imparfait with the endings -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient. The main difference is in their stem, which may be different from their present tense form.

Quiz

Now, try to complete these sentences using l'imparfait: