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Past Tenses
How and when to use perfect or imperfect.
Date : 08/02/2018
Author Information
Uploaded by : Frances
Uploaded on : 08/02/2018
Subject : French
Perfect or imperfect?
These two past tenses are used for different purposes in French: let`s look at when you would use one or the other!
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You would use the perfect to talk or write about something which took place once in the past: `I went to France last year`.
You would use the imperfect to talk or write about something which took place regularly: `I used to visit my granny every Saturday`.
You would also use the imperfect to talk about something which went on for a time: `I was listening to a podcast. It was raining all weekend.
How to write the imperfect
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Take, first, the nous form of the present tense. Remove the -ons, and add the special endings for the imperfect tense.
e.g. Nous parlons Take off ons - then add endings: je parlais, tu parlais, etc
parler
finir
avoir
être
je -ais
je parlais
je finissais
j`avais
j`étais
tu -ais
tu parlais
tu finissais
tu avais
tu étais
il/elle/on -ait
il parlait
elle finissait
on avait
il était
nous -ions
nous parlions
nous finissions
nous avions
nous étions
vous -iez
vous parliez
vous finissiez
vous aviez
vous étiez
ils/elles -aient
ils parlaient
ils finissaient
ils avaient
ils étaient
How to write the perfect
We need the present-tense forms of avoir/être and the past participle (Participe passé).
person
avoir
être
1st person singular
jai
aimé
fini venduje suis
parti
partie partis parties2nd person singular
tu as
tu es
3rd person singular
il/elle/on a
il/elle/on est
1st person plural
nous avons
nous sommes
2nd person plural
vous avez
vous êtes
3rd person plural
ils/elles ont
ils/elles sont
Je suis parti.→; Je ne suis pas parti. For reflexive verbs, we put the reflexive pronoun (the me suis part) between the ne and pas.Example:
Je ne me suis pas revé à lheure I did not wake up on time
This resource was uploaded by: Frances