Transcript The Imperfect Tense

The Imperfect Tense
- saying what someone was doing
Use:
• to say was doing or used to do
Form
• you need 3 things:
1. a subject
2. the stem
3. the correct ending
To form the stem:
1.
2.
3.
4.
decide on the infinitive you need
find the present tense of this verb
take the nous part
remove the –ons ending
For example:
aller
allons
all
Now add the correct endings:
je
• ais
nous
• ions
tu
• ais
vous
• iez
il / elle/ • ait
ils/
• aient
on
elles
The only exception is…
être
être
nous sommes
BUT stem = ét
For example:
j’étais – I was
vous étiez – you were
ils étaient – they were
Some examples
•
•
•
•
•
I was doing – je faisais
he was dancing – il dansait
they were eating – ils mangeaient
we were finishing – nous finissions
you were selling – vous vendiez
A sneaky tip…
• For many –er and -re verbs you can
simply remove the infinitive ending and
then add the imperfect endings.
• BUT for –ir verbs you must add an -iss
For example:
je vendais
vendre
je regardais
regarder
je finissais
finir