When to use imparfait in french

The imperfect tense in French (l’imparfait) is one of the two past tenses in French, and it is used to talk about past habits that was usual in a period of time in the past, and to describe people, things or places in the past.

In this lesson, we will talk about the use and difference between the Imperfect Tense (l’imparfait) and the Passé composé, and the conjugation of each verb type (-er, -ir and -re) then give some examples.

The Imperfect Tense In French

We use l’imparfait to talk about past habits:

J’allais à l’école tous les jours: I used to go to school every day

And to describe people or things in the past:

J’avais les cheveux longs quand j’étais petit: I had long hair when i was a kid

The endings are:

Conjugating -er verbs in the imperfect

Let’s take the verb Parler (to speak) for example, in the present tense it is nous parlons, remove the ons, you get parl, now add the endings and voilà: