= She was going to the bakery when she saw Michel. = I was already in Grenoble last year.Īnd for long actions in the past: Elle allait à la boulangerie, quand elle a vu Michel. Like: J’étais déjà à Grenoble l’année dernière. More generally, it’s used for situations in the past (that lasted some time). = I used to drive to the office every morning. J’allais au bureau en voiture tous les matins. Well, that’s the second meaning of l’imparfait : a habit, in the past. Il y a (there is) → il y avait (there was / there used to be) Il faut (Someone needs to…) → Il fallait (Someone needed to…) Il pleut (it’s raining) → il pleuvait (it was raining) Il neige (it’s snowing) → il neigeait (it was snowing)ĭid you notice? In the examples above, I sometimes translated l’imparfait with “ used to. Some impersonal verbs don’t always have a present form with “ nous” yet we still use them in l’imparfait. Most notably: Commencer(= to start) → Nous commençons (= we start, present) → In l’imparfait: Je commençais Nous commencions Tu commençais Vous commenciez Elle commençait Elles commençaient So it always sounds like “ss” (as in “ ça” or “ ce”) and never like “ k” (as in “ ca” or “ co”). We add la cédille ( ç) for all subjects with -ai. Most notably: Manger (= to eat) → Nous mangeons (= we eat) → In l’imparfait: Je mangeais Nous mangions Tu mangeais Vous mangiez Elle mangeait Elles mangeaient Verbs in -ger add an -e before the endings of l’imparfait, with all subjects except “ nous” and “ vous.” Basically, we don’t want to hear the hard “ g” sound that would appear with “ g + ais.” So we turn it into “- geais” This e remains unchanged in the imparfait (except in the 1 st and 2 nd person plural forms).Fortunately, there aren’t many second-group verbs in everyday French ( grandir, nourrir = to feed…) – most verbs in -irare 3rd-group (like courir = to run, dormir = to sleep…) Unfortunately, there’s no real shortcut you have to learn the group of each verb in -ir you see.ī) Tweaks in first-group verbs, for pronunciation reasons For verbs that end in - ger, the present form in the 1 st person plural is constructed with e (in order to preserve the soft g sound).Je lan çais, tu lan çais, il lan çait, nous lancions, vous lanciez, ils lan çaient This ç remains unchanged in the imparfait (except in the 1 st and 2 nd person plural forms). For verbs that end in - cer, the present form in the 1 st person plural is constructed with ç (in order to preserve the soft c sound).To see the conjugation of any French verb in the imparfait, go to our verb conjugator. The verb avoir is regular in the imperfect only être has an irregular conjugation in this tense. Mentir, partir and sentir are part of this group. ** The ir-verbs that are not conjugated like finir, are conjugated like dormir. Here we add an - iss- to the word stem in the plural forms. Choisir, réagir, réfléchir and réussir belong to this group. * Most ir-verbs are conjugated like finir. passé composé to learn when to use which tense, then test yourself in the free exercises. Go to our dedicated page on imparfait vs. Learners of French often find it difficult to know when to use the imperfect tense and when to use the passé composé. They baked the cake and then ate a piece for dessert. While he was reading the recipe, Florence was preparing the cake batter.Įxample: Ils cuisaient le gâteau puis mangeaient une part au dessert. to talk about simultaneously occurring actions in the pastĮxample: Pendant qu’il regardait la recette, Florence préparait la pâte.Every day he would bake a cake with his friend Florence. to talk about a repeated action in the pastĮxample: Tous les jours, il faisait un gâteau avec son amie Florence. When Lucas was a kid, he was a big eater.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |