A large amount of time in the French language creates difficulties for beginners to learn it. For simplicity, sometimes called 19 time forms, such as Présent, Imparfait, Passé Composé and others.
In French, Imparfait is that time,which is studied one of the first, along with Présent and Passé Composé. In this article, you will find out in which situations Imparfait is used, how it is formed, and how it differs from its "comrade" - Passé Composé.
In French Imparfait is one of the formspast tense. Past times are used when they want to talk about the events of the past. The temporary form Imparfait in French means an unfinished past tense. In other words, this is the designation of a process that does not have an explicit beginning and end.
To make it clearer, take a look at the following examples:
La jeune fille dansait bien. - The girl beautifully danced.
Maman préparait le dinner. "My mother was preparing dinner."
Paul écrivait une lettre à son ami. - Paul wrote a letter to his friend.
Note that the actions are not limited to any time periods. This is the essence of the temporary form Imparfait - to show the process itself.
Imparfait in French can be compared to Past Continuous in English. If you studied the latter, you will see that these times are very similar. They are used in the same speech situations.
In order to properly form time, you need to remember the plan of action. We will analyze the French verb chercher, which translates into Russian as "search".
For the beginning we are looking for an unstressed foundation, that is, the basis of the verb in the first person of the plural:
So we got an unstressed foundation, from which we will form the forms Imparfait.
To the resulting basis we add the endings of Imparfait:
Je cherchais le cinéma. "I'm looking for a movie theater."
Nous cherchions notre cabinet. "We're looking for our office."
Ils cherchaient l "entrée. - They are looking for an entrance.
Chercher refers to the first group of verbs. For the verbs of the second and third groups have their own characteristics.
In the verbs of the second group in the plural forms between the root and the ending, the suffix -iss appears (Je bâtis., Nous bâtissons .- I build, we build). The basis will be in this case bâtiss-.
For the third group there is one exception - the verb être: nous sommes, but nous étions.
In French, Imparfait and Passe Composé are two past times that are often confused. We'll figure out what their differences are.
ANDimparfait in French is used if the action is incomplete. Passé Composé, on the contrary, denotes an action that has already happened.
Compare the cases of Imparfait and Passé Composé:
