But in storytelling terms (which is what languages are all about), you can look back at those events and relive them from a bunch of perspectives. The imperfect describes an ongoing action, an event not yet bound, closed, finished in time. I'm going to give you the short explanation first: my French imperfect tense is your English past progressive tense. It would also be a great name for a perfume. You do realize that imparfait means 'imperfect'? You're about to find out that French almost mirrors English in that respect, so things are easier than what I made them sound like. I just used three past tenses in English. Why are you smiling? And seriously, what's with the underlines? Along with the passé composé, it's used to describe events that took place in the past. It's an easy-to-learn, very regular tense. The imparfait is one of the French language's past tenses. And stop breaking the fourth wall.įAQ: What is the imparfait tense in French? Ew!! Isn't that a rat?! And why did you underline those words?! Of course, in a novel, or in short stories like fairy tales and novellas, you'd probably find the passé simple in most cases: ' Le téléphone sonna'. Unless you didn't answer the phone? Or you did, and you were about to mention it? In that case, I guess you can use the imparfait and say ' Le téléphone sonnait'. No, I mean, you should use a perfect tense here, like the passé composé : ' Hier, le téléphone a sonné'. See? Easy! And check that vocabulary of mine! Not too shabby, eh? In the present tense, I should say: ' Le téléphone sonne.' Right? Right?! So, if I want to say that yesterday the phone rang, I just say ' Le téléphone sonnait'. Okay, imagine that phone is ringing right now. Let me try to use it, this is so exciting! Hmm. Insert the exact words said from 0:09 to 0:15 Watch this video with our built-in transcripts, translations, and dictionary here. Your optimism about the French past tenses is heartbreaking. And one cool thing I learned is, even irregular verbs become regular in the imparfait tense! Also, the imparfait is very useful in everyday life, whether you're writing or speaking. You just need to learn one small set of verb endings that you put. That imparfait French is easy French! And it's a very easy-to-spot verb tense, too. We and every other language, including English. The imparfait? Wait, is that why you guys don't just call it ' le passé'? There's more than one past tense? the key to storytelling! History! Reading books! Watching Godard films! Bye-bye textbooks! Bonjour, immersion! Present, present, present! Today I started learning about the French past tense, a.k.a. Yeah, but now I'm starting to learn more verb tenses! So far it was just the present tense. Haven't you been studying French for weeks? I'm finally taking off in my French lessons! I'm actually learning French now!

The Imparfait, the Passé Composé and the Passé Simple walk into a bar.

Imparfait endings partager