In this section:

• imparfait – formation

• imparfait – idiomatic uses

imparfait – formation

The imperfect tense (l’imparfait), one of several past tenses in French, is used to describe states of being and habitual actions in the past. It also has several idiomatic uses.

Stem: 
The stem of the imparfait is the first person plural (nous) form of the present tense, minus the -ons. The imparfait stem is regular for all verbs except être:

Endings
To the stem, add the endings -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, and –aient. Listen carefully to the pronunciation of the verbs danser, finir and être in the imparfait tense. Note that -ais, -ais, -ait, and -aient are all pronounced alike. That means that the singular forms and 3rd person plural (the boot) all sound the same!

Stem changing verbs like voyager and commencer add an e or ç to maintain the soft g or s sound, before imparfait endings which begin with a (je voyageais, tu voyageais, il / elle / on voyageait, ils / elles voyageaient), in other words, before all forms except nous and vous (nous voyagions, vous voyagiez).

The imparfait of pronominal verbs is regular, with the addition of the reflexive pronoun:

The negation is formed as usual by placing ne … pas around the conjugated verb: Je ne dansais pas (I wasn’t dancing / I didn’t used to dance), Tu ne t’amusais pas (You weren’t having a good time / You didn’t used to have a good time).

Listen to someone describing their morning:

Je suis allé chez mon copain ce matin. Je voulais le voir, mais il n‘était pas chez lui. J’avais un cadeau à lui donner. Je ne pouvais pas le laisser devant sa porte! Donc je l’ai offert aux voisins! J’espère qu’ils l’aimeront.

imparfait – idiomatic uses

The imperfect tense (l’imparfait) has two primary uses: to describe on-going actions or states of being in the past, and to state habitual actions in the past. The imparfait also has several idiomatic uses found in the following contexts:

Suggestions
The imparfait is used to suggest an action in phrases beginning with Si on … ?

Wishes
The imparfait is used to express wishes such as ‘If only we didn’t have a test this week!’ The French equivalent structure, si + imparfait, may, or may not, contain the adverb seulement:

Note that the question mark at the end of the sentence indicates a suggestion, and the exclamation mark a wish. In spoken French, however, you have to rely on context and intonation to distinguish between wish and suggestion. Listen to the difference in intonation between these two sentences:

For other uses of si + imparfait, see si clauses + conditional. The imparfait also occurs in idiomatic uses with depuis and venir de.