Imparfait endings ir verbs how to#

In French, to describe “used to”, only use the imperfect tense. On March 28, Pierre ate at restaurant with a friend.

Passé composé: Le 28 mars, Pierre a dîné au restaurant avec son ami.

When Pierre lived in Paris, he went (used to go) to the café every day.

Imperfect: Quand Pierre habitait à Paris, il allait au café tous les jours.

These are “storyline” or “plot” actions describing what people did and what occurred. Specific past actions are described with the passé composé. The imperfect is used to describe past habitual actions and conditions: What people “used to” be and how past situations “used to be”. Passé composé: Un jour, J’ai regardé un match de tennis.Imperfect: Habituellement, je regardais les matchs de foot.The French language distinguishes very clearly between past events which occurred multiple times past events which only occurred once. While the imperfect is used for describing ongoing and repeated actions, the passé composé is used to express one-time events which occurred at specified times. the passé composé, another commonly used French past tense. In this section, we’ll explore the differences of the imperfect vs. When I was a child, I skied every weekend. Quand j’étais un enfant, je faisais du ski chaque weekend.Describing actions that took place repeatedly in the past La maison était située sur une colline.When I was little I like to drink hot chocolate.Ģ. Quand j’étais un enfant, j’aimais boire le chocolat chaud.

Imparfait endings ir verbs how to#

Learning how to use the imperfect tense (l ‘imparfait) can be a challenge for many students. For example, j’étais (I was, used to be). The verb However, être(to be) has an irregular imperfect stem ét. Drop the -ons from nous avons and add appropriate imperfect ending. The verb avoir (to have) follows the same conjugation pattern of the verbs listed above. For example, Je partais (I was leaving, used to leave). For example, Je finissais (I was finishing, used to finish).įor irregular -ir verbs such as partir (to leave), drop the -ons from the nous form, nous partons and the appropriate ending. There is one exception: être (to be).įor regular -ir verbs such as finir, drop the -ons from the present tense nous form nous finissons and add the appropriate ending. The rule of dropping the -ons of the nous form in the present tense and adding the imperfect endings applies to every verb in the French language. For example, Nous parlons -> je parlais (I used to speak, was speaking). To form the imperfect, drop the -ons on the nous form of the present tense and add the endings-ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez and -aient. The French imperfect tense is used to describe states of being and habitual actions in the past.