What is the imperfect tense?

The imperfect is one of the French language’s two main past tenses. In comparison to the passe compose, the imperfect is used to describe continuous past actions.

We use the imperfect tense for many situations such as:

• Recurrent actions (I used to play the violin)

• Describing feelings (I was a happy child)

• Describing age and time (I was 12 years old)

• General descriptions in the past (it was cold)

• Ongoing actions that are interrupted by another (I was eating when she screamed)

Conjugating in the imperfect tense

To conjugate a verb in the imperfect tense you must do a few things.

1. You take the nous form of the verb in the present tense

2. Take off the -ons ending

3. Add the appropriate ending to the new stem.

The Endings

je -ais

tu -ais

il/elle -ait

nous -ions

vous -iez

ils/elles -aient

Irregular

There is one irregular with the imperfect tense and that is être.

It goes like this.

je -étais

tu -étais

il/elle -était

nous -étions

vous -étaient