How is the imperfect tense formed in french

French grammar index French-English dictionary English-French dictionary. Take the nous form of the present tense and remove the -ons to form the stem ; Add the appropriate ending -ais , -ait , -ions , -iez , -aient.

With the majority of verbs, regular or irregular, the imperfect tense is based on the infinitive minus the 'ending' -er , -re , -oir , -ire etc. With regular -ir verbs , remember the -ss- ; with irregular -ir verbs, you generally just remove the -ir. Difficulties 'le' or 'la'? To talk about a past habitual occurrence or state of being. To indicate an action that was ongoing when something else took place.

The Imperfect Tense for -er Verbs Use the same verb stem as the one being used for the perfect tense. This is simply the infinitive, but with the -er chopped off. Add the correct ending to the stem.

The ending would depend on the pronoun used in the sentence. The French Imperfect Tense for -ir Verbs Use the same verb stem as the one being used for the perfect tense. This is just the infinitive minus the -ir ending. The ending is also dependent on the pronoun being used in the sentence. To get this, use the infinitive and remove the -re ending. The ending depends on the pronoun being used in the sentence. Verbs with Spelling Changes Like in other tenses, verbs that have a -cer or -ger ending have slight changes in their spelling when conjugated to the Imperfect Tense.

I was happy See? Easy peasy. Learn more about the French imperfect tense and other French grammar basics with our courses! Learn more about Lingolia Plus here. Become a Lingolia Plus member to access these additional exercises. When he was young, Lucas really liked cake. When Lucas was a kid, he was a big eater.

Good old si sentences. It usually expresses things that are unlikely. Fat chance. Yeah right. If I had a million euros, I would buy two houses. We would be friends if you were nicer. If you are doing a double take in the face of the conditional, then check out how to form it and how you would use it if you knew how, here.

Tip: The imperfect and the conditional use the same endings. So if you are feeling particularly ambitious right now, the conditional is a great tense to learn in conjunction with the imperfect!

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