The Imperfect Tense

The imperfect (l'imparfait) is a past tense for actions that were ongoing, repeated or descriptive — not finished in one moment. It has three main English translations:

Use	Example	English
Used to do	Je jouais au foot.	I used to play football.
Was doing	Il regardait la télé.	He was watching TV.
Description / state	Il faisait beau.	It was fine (weather).

Where the perfect tense (passé composé) says what happened as a single event, the imperfect says what was going on or used to happen. Both are past tenses, and good writing uses them together.

• Quand j'étais petit, je regardais des dessins animés. → When I was little, I used to watch cartoons.

The imperfect uses one set of endings for every verb, so it is very regular. The stem comes from the nous form of the present tense, with the -ons removed.

Rule: take the nous present form, drop -ons, add -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient.

Three worked stems:

Infinitive	nous (present)	Imperfect stem
parler	nous parlons	parl-
finir	nous finissons	finiss-
vendre	nous vendons	vend-

This is why the -iss- of verbs like finir shows up throughout the imperfect: it is already in the nous form (nous finissons).

• Je parlais français. → I used to speak French.
• Nous finissions nos devoirs. → We were finishing our homework.

The endings are identical for all verbs. Here is the full grid using parler (stem parl-):

Subject	Ending	parler →	English
je	-ais	parlais	I was speaking
tu	-ais	parlais	you were speaking
il / elle / on	-ait	parlait	he/she was speaking
nous	-ions	parlions	we were speaking
vous	-iez	parliez	you were speaking
ils / elles	-aient	parlaient	they were speaking

Three endings — -ais, -ais, -ait and -aient — all sound the same ("eh"), so spelling matters in dictation. Only nous (-ions) and vous (-iez) sound different.

(Higher tier) At Foundation, most imperfect use is in the singular and with était / avait / faisait. The full grid, including plural forms, is required at Higher tier — but the endings are the same set for every verb.

Spelling note: -ger and -cer verbs keep their soft sound before a: manger → je mangeais, il mangeait; commencer → je commençais (but nous mangions, nous commencions, where the vowel is already soft).

Only être has an irregular stem. avoir and faire are formed normally from their nous forms, but they are so common it is worth seeing them in full.

Subject	être (ét-)	avoir (av-)	faire (fais-)
je / j'	étais	avais	faisais
tu	étais	avais	faisais
il / elle / on	était	avait	faisait
nous	étions	avions	faisions
vous	étiez	aviez	faisiez
ils / elles	étaient	avaient	faisaient

These three cover most GCSE past description:

• Il était fatigué. → He was tired.
• J'avais dix ans. → I was ten years old. (French uses avoir for age)
• Il faisait froid et il pleuvait. → It was cold and it was raining.

Use the imperfect for the background of a past scene rather than a single finished event. Typical triggers:

• Habitual / repeated action — "used to", "would (regularly)": Tous les jours, je prenais le bus. (Every day I used to take the bus.)
• Ongoing action / description — "was …-ing", setting the scene: Elle portait une robe rouge. (She was wearing a red dress.)
• Time, age and feelings in the past: Il était minuit; j'avais peur. (It was midnight; I was afraid.)
• Weather in the past: Il faisait beau et le soleil brillait. (It was fine and the sun was shining.)

Time phrases that often signal the imperfect: d'habitude (usually), souvent (often), tous les jours (every day), le week-end (at weekends), quand j'étais petit(e) (when I was little).

The two past tenses do different jobs. The imperfect paints the background; the passé composé reports the completed action that stands out against it.

Use the imperfect for…	Use the passé composé for…
description / setting the scene	a single, completed event
repeated or habitual action	an action that happened once
"was doing" / "used to do"	"did" / "has done"
feelings, time, age, weather	a sudden action that interrupts

Worked contrast:

• Je regardais la télé quand le téléphone a sonné. → I was watching TV when the phone rang.

Here regardais (imperfect) is the ongoing background, and a sonné (passé composé) is the single event that cuts into it. A well-marked GCSE answer mixes both:

• Il faisait beau, alors nous sommes allés à la plage. → It was fine, so we went to the beach.

1. Building the stem from the infinitive

The stem comes from the nous present form, not the infinitive. From nous finissons you get je finissais, keeping the -iss-. Starting from "finir" and writing je finais is wrong.

2. Forgetting that être is the only irregular

Every other verb takes a regular nous-minus-ons stem. Only être uses ét-: j'étais, not je suis-ais or j'étaisais.

3. Confusing nous/vous endings

nous takes -ions and vous takes -iez: nous parlions, vous parliez. Writing nous parlais mixes up the persons.

4. Using the imperfect for a single completed action

"I ate a pizza" (one event) is the passé composé — j'ai mangé une pizza, not je mangeais. Reserve the imperfect for description, habit and ongoing action.

5. Dropping the soft-sound spelling in -ger / -cer verbs

manger and commencer keep their soft sound before a: je mangeais, il commençait. Forgetting the extra e or the cédille changes the pronunciation and is marked as an error.