Level 74 - Imperfect Tense

The perfect tense (see Levels 59, 60, 61 and 62) describes a completed action - something that happened or has happened but which is no longer happening. The imperfect tense is used to describe what was happening or what used to happen. Whether or not the action is completed or not does not matter. For example, "I was watching the television" is imperfect while "I watched the television" is perfect.

To make the imperfect tense, take the nous form of the verb in the present tense, remove ons and add the following endings:

Examples

Être

Être 'to be' is the only irregular verb in the imperfect tense and it is also the one you are most likely to use. Here are its various parts and a couple of examples:

Avoir

This is the verb you are second most likely to use, especially j'avais 'I had' and il y avait / il y avaient 'there was / there were'.