Search results
The imperfect can correspond to the English simple past tense, but also to structures such as used to and would. The imperfect is used to tell stories and report on past actions, mostly in written contexts. Learn about the imperfect with Lingolia, then check your knowledge in the free exercises.
Sep 12, 2012 · The French imperfect tense (l'imparfait) is used to describe ongoing or repeated past actions. Endings include -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez and -aient. The French language has two main past tenses: The passé composé and imperfect (l'imparfait).
Apr 20, 2021 · L’imparfait is the French version of the “past progressive” or “past continuous” tense: “ was [verb]+-ing ” etc. For instance: Je pensais à toi. = I was thinking about you. → Here the verb “ penser ” (= to think) is in l’imparfait. It makes “ Je pensais. ” = I was thinking. This is the gist of it.
Sep 8, 2019 · By ThoughtCo Team. Updated on September 08, 2019. The French imperfect (imparfait) is a descriptive past tense that indicates an ongoing state of being or a repeated or incomplete action. The beginning and end of the state of being or action are not indicated, and the imperfect is very often translated in English as "was" or "was ___-ing."
Imparfait. They say practice makes perfect, so how can one of the most common French past tenses be imperfect? In grammatical terms, "perfect" means "complete," so the French imperfect tense is used to describe an incomplete or ongoing action or state of being.
L’imparfait is a form of past tense in French mainly used to describe continuous actions, repetitive actions, or existing states. In this section we’ll cover some of the contexts where we’ll use imparfait French rather than the passé composé, with plenty of examples.
Along with the passé composé, the imparfait serves as one of the two most important past tense conjugations in French. In its simplest definition, the imperfect is used for describing events that have no clear beginning or end.
