The indicative imperfect tense in French is used to express actions that happened in the past, but that may or may not have been completed, that had been executed multiple times in the past or that had happened over a long period of time in comparison to now. Its English equivalent is as follows:
Past progressive tense
The tense that is composed as was or were plus the '-ing' ending. Read Notable points for more on this.
例如 I was going to the shop.
Past tense with modal verb 'used to'
The tense is composed as used plus the infinitive Of the verb.
例如 I used to go to the shop.
Perfect tense
The tense that is composed with the '-ed' ending, but this is for specific verbs and only due to an irregularity in English. Read Notable points for more on this.
例如 I wanted to eat the apple.
使用的例子
例如 1)
avec son professeur.
with his teacher.
例如 2)
la vie que je voulais vivre.
the life to live.
例如 3)
des livres et stylos.
books and pens.
如何变位
Drop the final 'ons' from the plural first person, the nous form, of present tense of the indicative and use the following endings. Note: the following endings are the same endings as the conditional present tense.
Je
-ais
I
Tu
-ais
you (s.)
Il
-ait
he, she, it
Nous
-ions
we
Vous
-iez
you (p., pol.)
Ils
-aient
they
变位的例子
-er verb
parler nous parl
Je
parl
Tu
parl
Il
parl
Nous
parl
Vous
parl
Ils
parl
-ir verb
choissir nous choisiss
Je
choisiss
Tu
choisiss
Il
choisiss
Nous
choisiss
Vous
choisiss
Ils
choisiss
-re verb
vendre nous vend
Je
vend
Tu
vend
Il
vend
Nous
vend
Vous
vend
Ils
vend
值得注意的点
Past progressive tenseThe past progressive tense exists in French. It is conjugated as the imperfect tense, that you're currently reading, of the verb être plus en train de plus the infinitive of the verb. Its usage differs to English in that you only use this in French to emphasize that something was happening at the point in the story-telling. Using it in general story-telling would be strange.
Perfect tenseThe perfect tense of certain verbs in English are used in French in the imperfect tense. This is because verbs like to want, to be ~ years old and to have to don't have an imperfect form, without sounding strange, in English. Eg.) I wanted the book. This should have been: 'I was wanting the book', but this sounds strange in English. These verbs should be in the imperfect because they happened over a long period of time in comparison to now. The same with 'I was needing to see it', etc. It's important to remember that devoir (to have to), vouloir (to want to), avoir ~ ans (to be ~ years old), as well as other verbs relating to weather and time, will almost always take the imperfect tense in French, even though they "appear" in the perfect tense in English.
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