Many students confuse the imparfait and the passé composé. Ils/Elles chois issaient Impartfait or Passé Composé? Let’s conjugate the verb choisir (choose) as an example: If we didn’t do this, the c would be pronounced like the c in car.įinally, for those verbs ending in -ir, we add iss to the root of the verb before adding the corresponding ending. Let’s conjugate the verb avancer (advance) as an example:Įxcept for the conjugations of nous and vous, we use a cedilla to keep the s pronunciation. Otherwise, the g would be pronounced like the g in game.įor those verbs ending in -cer, we drop -er, substitute ç for c, and add the corresponding ending. Let’s conjugate the verb manger (eat) as an example:ĭid you notice this rule does not apply to the conjugations for nous and vous? For the rest, we add an -e to keep the soft g sound. However, it’s a little bit different with some verbs.įor those verbs ending in -ger, we just drop the r and add the corresponding ending. Normally, we would only drop the ending of a verb and replace it with -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, or -aient. Let’s conjugate the verb marcher (walk) for a better illustration:ĭid you notice we dropped the ending -er and added a different ending depending on the person? Exceptions when ConjugatingĪs with all things, there are some exceptions you have to keep in mind when conjugating French verbs. Note that the endings above apply to verbs ending in -er, -ir, and -re. Remember we mentioned earlier that it’s easier to conjugate verbs to form the imparfait? To form it, we need to add the following endings to the root of the verb: Dad was reading the newspaper while Mom was making breakfast. To talk about two simultaneous actions in the past.Įxample: Papa lisait le journal pendant que maman préparait le petit déjeuner. My children used to watch Sesame Street e Chloé was a very shy girl.Įxample: Mes enfants regardaient Sesame Street tous les jours après l’école. To describe someone or something in the past.Įxample: Chloé était une fille très timide. We use the imparfait in the following situations:Įxample: Quand j’ étais petit, je détestais le brocoli. Now that we know what it is, we need to know when to use it. Isn’t that great? When Do We Use the Imparfait? Unlike English, we don’t have to worry about the verb to be or used to/would. The good news is we only conjugate the main verb when talking about ongoing actions or past habits in French. To talk about habits in the past, we use would or used to.Įxample: Il jouait au football au lycée. This is what we call past continuous or past progressive.Įxample: Je dormais quand tu m’as appelé. In English, we use the auxiliary be + present participle to talk about continuous actions in the past. The imparfait is a past tense used to describe states of being and actions that were ongoing or repeated in the past. Are you ready? C’est parti! What is the Imparfait? By the end of this post, you should be able to use it in your conversations. We will explain its different uses and provide you with several examples for a better understanding. It’s probably less complicated than its brother, the passé composé.
When to use the plus que parfait how to#
We will learn how to use the imparfait and when you should use it. Today, we will talk about another structure that is equally used: the imparfait, or how the French call it, l’imparfait. In a previous post, we talked about the passé composé, which is one of the most common structures to talk about the past in French.
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