The imperfect tense in French (l’imparfait) is one of the two past tenses in French, and it is used to talk about past habits that was usual in a period of time in the past, and to describe people, things or places in the past.
In this lesson, we will talk about the use and difference between the Imperfect Tense (l’imparfait) and the Passé composé, and the conjugation of each verb type (-er, -ir and -re) then give some examples.
The Imperfect Tense In French
We use l’imparfait to talk about past habits:
J’allais à l’école tous les jours: I used to go to school every day
And to describe people or things in the past:
J’avais les cheveux longs quand j’étais petit: I had long hair when i was a kid
To conjugate a verb in the French imperfect tense l’imparfait, follow these steps:
- Take the “nous” form of the present tense
- Remove the “-ons” ending
- Add the imperfect endings: -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient.
The endings are:
| Subject | Ending |
| je | ais |
| tu | ais |
| il/elle/on | ait |
| nous | ions |
| vous | iez |
| ils/elles | aient |
Conjugating -er verbs in the imperfect
Let’s take the verb Parler (to speak) for example, in the present tense it is nous parlons, remove the ons, you get parl, now add the endings and voilà:
| je | parlais |
| tu | parlais |
| il/elle/on | parlait |
| nous | parlions |
| vous | parliez |
| ils/elles | parlaient |
Verbs ending with -ier, étudier for example:
This may look weird but, -ier verbs keep both two i in both nous and vous:
| je | étudiais |
| tu | étudiais |
| il/elle/on | étudiait |
| nous | étudiions |
| vous | étudiiez |
| ils/elles | étudiaient |
Note: you can practice what you’ve learned here, and learn how to pronounce each of the words in our Memrise course here, don’t know how to use the platform or sign up? we’ve got you covered in this easy-to-follow tutorial here.
Conjugating -ir verbs in the imperfect
Example: Finir (to finish)
| je | finissais |
| tu | finissais |
| il/elle/on | finissait |
| nous | finissions |
| vous | finissiez |
| ils/elles | finissaient |
Conjugating -re verbs in the imperfect
Example: Apprendre (to learn)
| je | apprenais |
| tu | apprenais |
| il/elle/on | apprenait |
| nous | apprenions |
| vous | appreniez |
| ils/elles | apprenaient |
Conjugating the verb être in the imperfect
| j’ | étais |
| tu | étais |
| il/elle/on | était |
| nous | étions |
| vous | étiez |
| ils/elles | étaient |
Some Exceptions
Luckily there are only a few exceptions to take care of, like the verbs ending in –cer or –ger, these verbs follow the same rule as –er verbs, however we need to make some little changes to maintain the pronunciation.
Verbs ending in –cer have a cedilla in the c, and it remains in all the pronouns in the imperfect except for nous and vous.
Example: commencer (to start):
| je | commençais |
| tu | commençais |
| il/elle/on | commençait |
| nous | commencions |
| vous | commenciez |
| ils/elles | commençaient |
Verbs ending in -ger, we add e after g to maintain the pronunciation in all the pronouns in the imperfect except for nous and vous.
Example: manger (to eat)
| je | mangeais |
| tu | mangeais |
| il/elle/on | mangeait |
| nous | mangions |
| vous | mangiez |
| ils/elles | mangeaient |
Le passé composé vs l’imparfait
We use “le passé composé” to talk about specific events that have finished in the past, while we use the “l’imparfait” to describe people, habits and things in the past.
Sometimes we use both in the same sentence, if for example, we were doing something when another action happened, look at this sentence:
Je mangeais quand tu m’as appelé (I was eating when you called me)
Related: le passé composé in French
Happy learning
