The imperfect in the text
1 USAGEa The imperfect often describes an event in progress in the past. Neither the beginning nor the
end of the action is relevant. It provides background information to the story-line.
e.g. Un jour il y avait un jeune dromadaire qui n’était pas content du tout(line 1)
The imperfect is used to convey the ongoing nature of an action in the past, as opposed to a
punctual action, when the passé composéor the past historic would be used.
e.g. Il parlait d’autre chose(line 11) ( = he was talking about something else)
Il était très mal assis(line 14) ( = he was sitting uncomfortably)
as opposed to, e.g., il mordit le conférencier(lines 28–9) ( = he bit the speaker)
The imperfect is used in descriptions in the past. Here again continuity is the key to the use of
this tense.
e.g. C’était un dromadaire et il était très propre(line 32)
NoteIn English the simple past is often used in cases where French requires the imperfect
e.g. Il avait envie de pleurer(line 7) ( = he wanted to cry)
b The imperfect can be used to express a habit or repetition in the past.
e.g. De temps en temps le monsieur versait de l’eau(lines 9–10)
Toutes les cinq minutes, le conférencier répétait(line 18)
NoteRepetition can be expressed in English by ‘would’
e.g. he would do this every day = il faisait cela chaque jour
When ‘would’ can be paraphrased as ‘used to’, it should be translated into French with an
imperfect and not with a conditional (see Chapter 7).c Imperfect + depuis
This describes an action started in the past and still in progress at the time of narration.
e.g. Depuis une heure trois quarts un gros monsieur parlait(line 8) (= a fat gentleman had been
talking for an hour and three-quarters)
(See Chapter 1 for the use of depuis+ present, e.g. il parle depuis une heure= he has been
talking for an hour)2 FORMATIONThe stem used to form an imperfect is that of the first-person plural of the present tense.
e.g. Nous avons, nous regardons, nous finissons
The following endings are added to this stem: -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient.
e.g. Il y avait(line 1), parlait(line 8), souffrait(line 13), disaient(line 22), prenaient(line 23), etc.
The imperfect 13