Learn the French imparfait, used for ongoing past actions, habits and descriptions, with Lingolia’s clear grammar guide and free online exercises.
French has two main past tenses: The passé composé and the imperfect (l’imparfait). While the passé composé is used to describe past actions which occured at specified times, the imperfect is used to describe post actions which occurred at unspecified times. This lesson explains how to form and use the imperfect tense in detail.
The imperfect tense (l'imparfait), one of several past tenses in French, is used to describe states of being and habitual actions in the past. It also has several idiomatic uses. stem The stem of the imparfait is the first person plural (nous) form of the present tense, minus the -ons. The imparfait stem is regular for all verbs except être:
Practice french verb conjugations for L'Imparfait (all verbs). Study verbs with flashcards, pronunciation, interactive games, and graded fill-the-blank practice.
The French imparfait (imperfect tense) is used to describe “past habits,” “ongoing states,” “background descriptions,” and “feelings or thoughts.” In this lesson, I will explain how the imperfect is conjugated, as well as the contexts in which it is used.
#27 How to Use the French Imperfect Tense (Imparfait ... - french ...
L' imparfait de l'indicatif exprime un fait ou une action qui a déjà eu lieu au moment où nous nous exprimons mais qui peut encore se dérouler. Exemple : Quand tu étais enfant, tu étais timide.
The Imparfait The imperfect ( l'imparfait) expresses or describes continued, repeated, habitual actions or incomplete actions, situations, or events in the past. The imperfect describes what was going on at an indefinite time in the past or what used to happen. The imperfect can be translated by “would” when it implies “used to.”