French's l'imparfait is a 'descriptive' past tense that's used to express continuous or repeated actions or events that used to happen; it loosely translates in English as "was" or "was __-ing" (remember le passé composé is used to describe what has happened). It's difficult for non-natives to fully understand this concept, but the guys at Language Center make a good go of it.

L'Imparfait | Imperfect Tense

1. General Use

L'imparfait is used:

1. To describe what was or used to happen habitually

   Le week-end, elle faisait le ménage

   On weekends, she used to do the housework

2. To express a past action of an unknown duration

   Il espérait te voir avant ton départ

   He was hoping to see you before you left

3. To describe people, things or time in the past

   Quand elle avait 7 ans, elle était timide

   When she was 7, she was shy

   C'était un nuit fantastique

   It was a fantastic night

4. To express a state of mind in the past

   Elle voulait faire de son mieux

   She wanted to do her best

5. When making a suggestion or wish with si (if)

   Si on allait au cinema ce soir?

   How about the cinema tonight?

   Si j'étais riche!

   If only I was rich!

6. A situation that was happening when another occured

   Je sortais quand mon ami m'a téléphoné

   I was going out when my friend called

7. With en train de to convey being in the middle of something

   J'étais en train de faire la cuisine quand la téléphone a sonné

   I was in the middle of the cooking when the phone rang

2. Formation

To form l'imparfait, you just drop the -ons from the present tense 'nous form' of the verb and add the required imperfect ending:

3. Irregular Imperfect Verbs

Thankfully l'imparfait has only one irregular verb - être:

4. Concept Check

This table provides you with a few running examples of l'imparfait: