French tense Imparfait French Indicative Mood The French tense 'Imparfait': its conjugation.
Like it goes with several French tenses, you obtain a new conjugation by pulling down the ending of the first plural person (we/nous) in the present of the indicative mood and by replacing it with the endings of the tense you want to get; here, the imparfait. For example, nous venons, may be broken down into ven (the stem) + ons (the ending); to get the French imparfait, take the stem and add the ending (according to the person!). Je venais (ven+ais), tu venais, il/elle/on/la fille/Armand venait, nous venions, vous veniez, ils/elles/les enfants/Armand et Marguerite venaient.
The three singular persons and the third plural person sound the same.
Except for the verb être, (as if I do not forget anything) all French verbs make their imparfait that way. The endings are the same for être (j'étais, tu étais, etc). There is truly no reason to look for a book that would detail the conjugation of thousands of verbs. Of course, people who sell these books do not share this opinion.
The French tense 'Imparfait': its uses.
The imperfect tense of the indicative mood, when refering to the past, refers to a past that all interlocutors may date. Let's take the simplest example. If you use the passé composé and say: “Il a vu un monstre,” we know about the event, but we do not know when it took place. But if we say: “Il voyait un monstre quand il regardait les nuages,” we know when he saw a monster: when he looked at the clouds. And we know when he looked at the clouds as well: when he saw a monster.
The past may be real “Le débarquement de Normandie commençait...” or imaginary “Il était une fois...” but it usually indicates a certain amount of time. The past events the imperfect tense reports are not instantaneous.
But the French imparfait may be used without a strong connection with a past event. The literary effects will not be studied in so brief an essay; let's study the uses you can hear in spoken French.
The hypothetical present is everywhere: si j'étais riche... (It does not express a past wish; you have to understand: if I were rich NOW.)
The other commonest use is in the reported speech. In the present: “Il répète que tu as tort,” both verbs are conjugated in the present. In the past: “Il répétait, (il répéta, il a répété) que tu avais tort.” The reported speech itself is conjugated in the French imparfait, be the main verb conjugated in the imparfait (imperfect), in the passé simple (simple past), or in the passé composé (compound past).
Check the use of the imparfait by Victor Hugo here:
http://www.frenchcoursebyfrenchteacher.com/french-grammar/conjugation.htmlFrench Imparfait
French verbs
French verbs
There is no reason for French grammar being challenging. Get the help you need here:
http://www.frenchcoursebyfrenchteacher.com or, if you are a more advanced student, enjoy the bilingual newsletter and the bilingual podcast as well. Click:
http://notsodailyfrench.com