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). The imperfect tense is generally used for descriptions of past events or actions without a specific endpoint in time.
What is imparfait in French examples?
- Je lisais tous les jours. ...
- Tu étudiais chaque jour. ...
- Il jouait au football quand il était petit. ...
- Tous les étés, nous allions dans le sud de la France. ...
- Ma mère me berçait dans ses bras jusqu’à ce que je m’endorme.My mother used to rock me in her arms until I fell asleep.
What is imparfait tense in French?
L’imparfait (the imperfect) is a French past tense . It describes states and actions that were ongoing or repeated in the past. The imperfect can correspond to the English simple past tense, but also to structures such as used to and would and even the past progressive.
What is the difference between imparfait and passe compose?
In a nutshell, the imparfait is used for incomplete actions while the passé composé is reserved for completed ones, but of course it’s more complicated than that.
Why is the imparfait used?
The imparfait is used to describe people, places, conditions or situations in the past . Some verbs occur more frequently in the imparfait when they are in the past since they typically describe states of being: être, avoir, vouloir, pouvoir. ... The imparfait is also used to state habitual actions in the past.
Is Vouloir être or avoir?
The French verb vouloir means “to want” or “to wish.” It is one of the 10 most common French verbs and you will use it just as much as avoir and être .
What are all the tenses in French?
There are 8 different verb tenses in the indicative mood: présent (present), imparfait (imperfect), passé simple (simple past) , futur simple (simple future), passé composé (perfect), plus-que-parfait (pluperfect), passé antérieur (past anterior), and futur antérieur (future anterior).
Do you use imparfait for age?
We use the imparfait because the fact that she was eight years old is a condition that sets up the rest of the sentence. We put visiter in the imparfait because it’s a habitual/repeated action (which we’ll talk about next).
What is the Conditionnel in French?
The conditional is used to refer to hypothetical events. It occurs in polite requests and most frequently with if clauses. In French, it is called le conditionnel and is most often translated by would in English. ... The conditional endings are -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient (These are also the imperfect endings).
Why is etre irregular in imparfait?
Verbs that end in -ier (e.g., étudier) will end up with a double ‘i’ in the Imperfect nous and vous forms. This isn ‘t irregular – it just looks odd. (And sounds odd, too, because you have to pronounce each letter ‘i’ individually.) There is only one irregular verb in the Imperfect tense, and that’s the verb ÊTRE.
Is Jamais an Imparfait?
jamais’ and said “Je ne savais jamais...” because I considered it to be something ongoing or habitual in the past. ... jamais can be used in L’Imparfait or Le Passé Composé.
What is plus que parfait in French?
The term “plus-que-parfait” suggests “ more in the past than the perfect .” The tense is used to indicate actions which took place before another action in the past, which is usually (though not always) described in the perfect (passé composé).
Is être passé composé?
The passé composé of 17 verbs is formed by combining the present tense of être (je suis, tu es, il est, nous sommes, vous êtes, ils sont) and then adding the past participle of the verb showing the action. An asterisk (*) in Table 6 denotes an irregular past participle. ...
How do you conjugate Imparfait?
- The stem consists of the first-person plural (nous) form of the present tense without the o n s ending.
- 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. All of the singular and the third-person plural endings are pronounced the same way.
What is futur proche in French?
LE FUTUR PROCHE. In French there are two tenses for the future tense, just like in English (you can say « i’m going to go » and « i will go » they both express a notion of future. « Futur proche » is like « i am going to go » . The good news is that it’s the easiest tense the French have, as there is NO exception.
How do you identify Imparfait?
In some situations, when you use “would” in English, we would use the imparfait in French... We conjugate the imperfect in French by adding the endings -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions , -iez and –aient to the root of the present tense nous form of the verb.
