Verbs: Imperfect Tense — French Grammar

The imperfect tense, or , is a descriptive past tense. It is used to talk about ongoing actions, habits, or states of being in the past without specifying when they started or finished. It corresponds roughly to the English structures "was doing," "used to do," or "would do" (in the sense of past habits).

Formation of the Imperfect

To form the imperfect for almost all verbs, follow these three steps:

Take the form of the verb in the present tense (e.g., ).
Remove the ending to find the stem (e.g., ).
Add the imperfect endings: , , , , , .

Je parlais avec mon frère.
I was speaking with my brother.
Nous finissions nos devoirs.
We were finishing our homework.
Ils vendaient des fleurs.
They used to sell flowers.

The Exception: Être

There is only one irregular verb stem in the imperfect tense: (to be). It does not use the form. Instead, it uses the irregular stem , to which you add the standard endings.

J'étais très fatigué.
I was very tired.
Tu étais à la maison ?
Were you at home?

Spelling Changes

For verbs ending in and , slight spelling adjustments are necessary to maintain the correct pronunciation.

Verbs ending in -ger: Add an extra e before endings that start with a or o to keep the soft "g" sound (like in measure).
Verbs ending in -cer: Change the c to a cedilla ç before endings that start with a or o to keep the soft "s" sound.

Note that the and forms do not require these changes because the endings start with i.

Je mangeais une pomme.
I was eating an apple.
Nous mangions ensemble.
We were eating together.
Il commençait le travail.
He was starting work.

Usage: Habits and Repetition

Use the imperfect to describe actions that happened repeatedly or habitually in the past. This is often translated as "used to."

Quand j'étais jeune, je jouais au foot.
When I was young, I used to play football.
Le dimanche, nous allions au parc.
On Sundays, we would go to the park.

Usage: Descriptions and States of Being

The imperfect is used to "set the scene." It describes physical conditions, weather, time, feelings, age, and mental states in the past. It focuses on what things were like, rather than specific events that happened.

Il faisait beau hier.
It was nice out yesterday.
Elle avait les cheveux blonds.
She had blond hair.
Je voulais partir.
I wanted to leave.

Usage: Ongoing Actions and Background

Use this tense for actions that were in progress at a specific moment in the past. It provides the background context for a story. Often, an ongoing action in the imperfect is interrupted by a sudden action in the perfect tense (passé composé).

Je dormais quand le téléphone a sonné.
I was sleeping when the phone rang.
Il regardait la télé pendant que je lisais.
He was watching TV while I was reading.

In the course

Sentences from Lingora’s French course

10 of the course's 500 sentences use this, the first in lesson 174. A few of them, with the words “Verbs: Imperfect Tense” is about in bold:

Je ne suis pas en retard. Je suis en avance. Le trafic était normal.
I am not late. I am early. Traffic was normal.
Lesson 279

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