Grammaire 1: l’imparfait
On étudie !
Introduction à l’imparfait
As we have seen, le passé composé is the past tense that presents an action as a single event completed at one time in the past.
L’imparfait (the imperfect), on the other hand, is a past tense used to describe actions and conditions that occurred repeatedly or habitually in the past.
This type of past tense in English is sometimes expressed with words like “used to” or “would”:
|
I used to eat a lot of pizza when I was young. |
l’imparfait: |
|---|---|
| I would eat a lot of pizza when I was young. | = Je mangeais beaucoup de pizza quand j’étais jeune. |
| I ate a lot of pizza when I was young. |
In all three English examples, we have an action (eating pizza) that occurred in the past repeatedly or habitually over time, rather than once. Here are two examples in French:
Chaque fois que j’allais en Suisse, je visitais ma grand-mère.
(Each time I went to Switzerland, I would visit my grand-mother.)
Qu’est-ce que tu faisais en été quand tu étais jeune ?
(What did you used to do in the summer when you were little?)
La conjugaison de l’imparfait
To conjugate verbs in the imperfect, you need to remember two things:
- With the exception of être, the stem of a verb is always the same as the nous form of the present tense. Even all verbs with irregular present-tense forms follow the regular pattern for the imperfect.
- The endings are the same for all imperfect verbs!
Here are some examples of how to conjugate verbs in the imparfait:
L’imparfait – verbes réguliers
|
Parler |
Finir |
Attendre |
|---|---|---|
| parl-“>je parlais | finiss-“>je finissais | attend-“>j’attendais |
| parl-“>tu parlais | finiss-“>tu finissais | attend-“>tu attendais |
| parl-“>il, elle, on parlait | finiss-“>il, elle, on finissait | attend-“>il, elle, on attendait |
| parl-“>nous parlions | finiss-“>nous finissions | attend-“>nous attendions |
| parl-“>vous parliez | finiss-“>vous finissiez | attend-“>vous attendiez |
| parl-“>ils, elles parlaient | finiss-“>ils, elles finissaient | attend-“>ils, elles attendaient |
Verbs with irregular present-tense stems, but regular imperfect stems:
L’imparfait – verbes irréguliers
| Infinitif | Racine | Terminaison |
|---|---|---|
| aller | all- | -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient |
| avoir | av- | -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient |
| dire | dis- | -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient |
| écrire | écriv- | -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient |
| faire | fais- | -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient |
| devoir | dev- | -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient |
| lire | lis- | -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient |
| prendre | pren- | -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient |
| venir | ven- | -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient |
| vouloir | voul- | -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient |
| voir | voy- | -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient |
| être | ét- | -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient |
Conjugaison du verbe être à l’imparfait
| Singulier | Pluriel |
|---|---|
| j’étais | nous étions |
| tu étais | vous étiez |
| il, elle, on était | ils, elles étaient |
Practice listening and repeating ways to talk about what kind of child you were: Quel genre d’enfant étiez-vous ?
Practice conjugating the imparfait on these sites:
