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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."
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.
Here are the imperfect conjugations for the regular -er verb donner (to give), the regular -ir verb choisir (to choose), the stem-changing verb lever (to lift), and the irregular verbs aller (to go) and être (to be). French imperfect endings are identical to conditional endings.
How to Use the French Imperfect Tense (Imparfait) Perfectly. The two most common tenses to talk about the past in French are the imparfait (“imperfect”) and passé composé (literally “composite past,” but more generally the “past perfect” tense). The imperfect tense is generally used for descriptions of past events or actions ...
Oct 19, 2020 · The imparfait is a past tense used to describe states of being and actions that were ongoing or repeated in the past. In English, we use the auxiliary be + present participle to talk about continuous actions in the past. This is what we call past continuous or past progressive. Example: Je dormais quand tu m’as appelé.
