L’imparfait – French Past Tense For Beginners

The Imparfait is a French past tense. It is used to talk about things that are ongoing, or continuous in the past.

It can be a little tricky as it can be a little blurry when to use and when to use the other main past tense, the passé compose.

The imparfait is used to describe an action that is taking place in the past, as the action is not complete, it is referred to as imperfect (if you remember the passé compose is completed actions, which is why its English version is the perfect past).

The Past Tense In English

There is not an exact translation from French to English for this past tense which is why it can be so difficult for anyone who is learning either language. 

The closest comparison is the past progressive (also called the past continuous) in English.

In English this tense is made by using “was” and adding –ing to verbs – “I was dancing”

When To Use The L’imparfait In French

The following are good examples of when you would usually use the imparfait:

Time and Age

When you are talking about the past and are wanting to say things like

“I was 18 when … j’avais 18 ans”

  “It was last November … c’était en novembre dernier”

General Descriptions

When you are generally describing the things in the past, this is very useful when you are telling a story and are setting the scene 

It was sunny … C’était ensoleillé

Habits

This sound strange, but it basically means things you would do often in the past. It makes more sense if it is described as things you “used to” do

Like saying “I used to work here  … je travaillais ici”

Or I used to play football … je jouerais au foot

Emotions/ Feelings/ States of Being

When you are describing any sort of physical or emotional feeling that was happening in the past. 

She was sad … elle était triste

She would smile … elle sourirait

When Two Things Happened At The Same Time In The Past

This sounds confusing, but when you are telling a story about something that happened you probably use this type of speech all the time.

“When I was eating …. Steve was also eating… but at a different restaurant”

“Quand je mangeais… Steve mangeait aussi… mais dans un autre restaurant”

As you can see both parts of this story are happening at the same time, so the imparfait should be used for both parts. 

When Ongoing Actions Are Interrupted By Another Action

This is another thing we use all the time in English where it sounds more complex than it really is.

“I was eating… when Steve arrived”   as you can see the eating part was interrupted by Steve’s arrival, so we use the imparfait to describe the act of eating.

“Je mangeais quand Steve est arrivé”

Was/Would/Used to

If you have paid attention you will notice all the above examples are using Was, Would or Used to. Basically if you are talking about the past and want to use these types of sentences, then you need to use the imparfait.

How To Conjugate The L’imparfait

To conjugate the imparfait there are two steps. Firstly we need to get the stem for the verb.

To do this for all 3 regular groups of verbs (those ending in -ER -IR –RE) we look at verb in the present tense.

Specifically the conjugation of the nous pronoun.  We then take this and remove the –ons from the end.

This makes our stem.

If we think about “danse – to dance”.

In the present tense, for Nous… it is Nous dansons.

We then remove Nous and the -ons … nous dansons

As you can see we are not left with “dans”. This is our stem.

We then take this and use it with the pronoun we need and add the ending to match from the table below

Je	Stem +	-ais
Tu	Stem +	-ais
Il/Elle	Stem +	-ait
Nous	Stem +	-ions
Vous	Stem +	-iez
Ils/Elles	Stem +	-aient

So we would end up with “Je dansais” – I was dancing

Irregular Verbs In The L’imparfait

Normally this is where it gets annoying, but for once it isn’t too bad. If you have learned the irregular verbs in the present tense, then you are fine. You treat them the same way. You take the Nous form in the present tense and remove the –ons. This is your stem and you use it in the same way, with the same endings as above.

Avoir

In the present tense – nous avons – removed the ending avons and you get “av” you then use the same ending as the table above for whatever pronoun you are wanting to talk about

I had – je avais

Aller

This common irregular verb also works in the same way. We take nous allons (aller in the perfect tense) and remove the –ons, so we are left with the stem “all” and we then just add whatever ending we need

I was going – j’allais

Etre

Etre is actually the only irregular word in this tense. This is the only word were we do not take the nous form and change it.

Instead it uses the stem ‘et’ and we then uses the same endings as above. So really you just need to remember that etre is “et” and then treat it exactly the same.

I was – j’etais

Also as you can see with aller and etre, as these words begin with a vowel, the je become j’ (the same would also happen with words beginning with H)

When Do You Use The Passé Composé or l’imparfait In French?

There is often confusion when you should use either of these two tenses. The truth is you will probably see both a lot. They can both be used to describe something that happened in the past and to make it more confusing they can both appear in the same sentence.

You just need to think about what is being said and try and imagine it. Using words like “I was, we where, it was” all imply that whatever you are talking about is happening right at the point in history you are describing. This is the imparfait. The action is still happening.

It’s only confusing as it’s actually finished now, as the action is in the past. We are talking about something that is ongoing, but also finished…confusing right.

Imagine you could look into a time machine and see the exact point in time you are talking about. Like you look into a little viewfinder and you can see what is happening as if you where watching it live.

Here you would see the thing happening right there and there. However, you are actually looking into the past.  

This is different to passé compse as it talking about something that is done. It’s finished. Even if we look into our time machine viewfinder and watch the action again. it’s already done.

Look at these two sentences.

Steve was eating an apple – il mangeait une pomme (imparfait)

Steve had eaten an apple – il avait mangé une pomme (passé compose)

They both look very similar and are both in the past, but we can see they use the two different tense.

If we imagine looking back to when this happened in our time machine viewfinder:

“Steve was eating the apple” – he would literally be eating it as we were watching him.

 “Steve had eaten an apple” – when we tuned in; he had already finished eating and was just throwing the core in the bin.

As you can see it’s a small difference but it would totally change what we would see. There is obviously a lot more variations than this, but hopefully this starts to open your mind to understanding the subtle differences and when you might use either to help you describe things in the way you want.     

Conclusion

The imparfait can confuse a lot of learners, which is understandable. As you can see it is not too difficult to form, it is more the issue surrounding when to use it.

The only real way to get better at this is to listen and read more. As you do this, take your time and pay attention to how the sentences are being used. You will start to get a better feel for how and when to use either the imparfait or the passé composé.

(This is the last lesson in the series, go back to the list of lessons to see if you have covered them all)