Grammar · Verbs & tenses
The imparfait — describing the past
Use the imparfait to describe the past: habits, ongoing states, and the background scenery of a story — what things were like, what you used to do, what was going on. Take the stem from the present-tense vous form (drop -ez), add one of six endings that are identical for every French verb.
| parlerto speak | finirto finish | faireto do / make | |
|---|---|---|---|
| je (j') | parlais | finissais | faisais |
| tu | parlais | finissais | faisais |
| il / elle / on | parlait | finissait | faisait |
| nous | parlions | finissions | faisions |
| vous | parliez | finissiez | faisiez |
| ils / elles | parlaient | finissaient | faisaient |
- faisais — stem from "vous faites" is irregular — it's fais-, not fait-, and it's pronounced "feu-zé".
- il / elle / on — on takes the same form as il/elle, even when it means "we".
- The six endings never change: -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient. What changes from verb to verb is only the stem — and that stem is always the vous form of the present tense with -ez removed (vous parlez → parl-, vous finissez → finiss-).
- no dedicated past tense for this: English reaches for used to + base verb for habits (I used to live in Nice) or was/were + -ing for a scene in progress (it was raining)
- one tense, the imparfait, covers both jobs — habits and ongoing scenes — with the same six endings on every verb
je finais → je finissais ✓ (the stem comes from vous finissez — keep the -iss-, don't shortcut from the infinitive)
Être is the one true exception. Every other verb takes its imparfait stem from vous, but être doesn't — its stem is simply ét-: j'étais, tu étais, il était, nous étions, vous étiez, ils étaient.
Imparfait sets the scene, passé composé moves the story forward. Reach for the imparfait for habits, descriptions, and states — often with quand, avant, tous les jours — and for one-off completed events, that's a separate card, passé composé vs imparfait.
-ger and -cer verbs keep their soft sound. Manger adds an e before endings starting with a: je mangeais. Commencer takes a cedilla: je commençais. Same six endings, just a spelling patch to protect the sound.
