Look at these examples in L'Imparfait:
Dans un coin de la pièce, une petite fille se tenait debout. Elle avait les yeux fermés.
In the corner of the room stood a little girl. She had her eyes shut.
Les clameurs de la foule en colère lui parvenaient à travers les rideaux.
The tumult of the angry crowd reached him through the curtains.
À 5 ans, j'avais les cheveux courts.
When I was 5, I had short hair.
Le soleil brillait sur la campagne, et les animaux couraient dans l'herbe verdoyante.
The sun shone on the countryside, and the animals ran in the green grass.
Il était une fois, un roi et une reine qui vivaient dans un château.
Once upon a time, a king and a queen lived in a castle.
Note that L'Imparfait is also used for descriptions, i.e. to help visualise the setting or atmosphere in which an action took place, characters, location, time frame ...
In a similar way, L'Imparfait is also used to express opinions about the past:
Other uses for L'Imparfait:
Expressing continuing action in L'Imparfait (imperfect tense)
Expressing habits or repeated actions in L'Imparfait (imperfect tense)
And to see how to conjugate in L'Imparfait:
Conjugate regular verbs in L'Imparfait (imperfect tense) and Conjugate être in L'Imparfait (imperfect tense)
Learn more about these related French grammar topics
Examples and resources
À 5 ans, j'avais les cheveux courts.
When I was 5, I had short hair.
J'étais heureux à cette époque.
I was happy at that time.
Il était une fois, un roi et une reine qui vivaient dans un château.
Once upon a time, a king and a queen lived in a castle.
Cela semblait trop beau pour être vrai.
It seemed too good to be true.
Les clameurs de la foule en colère lui parvenaient à travers les rideaux.
The tumult of the angry crowd reached him through the curtains.
Dans un coin de la pièce, une petite fille se tenait debout. Elle avait les yeux fermés.
In the corner of the room stood a little girl. She had her eyes shut.
Le soleil brillait sur la campagne, et les animaux couraient dans l'herbe verdoyante.
The sun shone on the countryside, and the animals ran in the green grass.
Q&A
Aurélie
Kwiziq language super star
27/12/16
If you used L'Imparfait here - "Je n'aimais jamais le goût de la viande." - it would be like saying "I was never liking the taste of meat" or "I never used to like the taste of meat.".
Remember that the English Present Perfect is translated in French either by Le Passé Composé or by Le Présent.
I hope that's helpful!
Bonnes Fêtes et à bientôt !
Andy
Kwiziq community member
27/12/16
Thanks to your explanation I can now clearly see how my belief that the phrase would be better expressed in the imparfait was very wrong. I had of course completely forgotten that the English Present Perfect may be translated by either Le Passé Composé or by Le Présent.
I did find this one very tricky though, thanks for providing further illumination!
Aurélie
Kwiziq language super star
28/12/16
Bonnes Fêtes et à bientôt !
Aurélie
Kwiziq language super star
14/09/16
I like your example ;)
Here the issue is the use of "Il était une fois" which is setting a time duration in which a story is taking place. Therefore, what's going to come straight after is going to be a description or setting of a situation of some kind, and this calls for L'Imparfait in French.
I hope that's helpful!
Lanny
Kwiziq community member
30/01/18
Aurélie
Kwiziq language super star
1/02/18
I don't quite follow what you're referring to here, but I'd be happy to answer your question if you could provide me with more context :)
À bientôt !
Lanny
Kwiziq community member
21/03/18
First, sorry for the confusion. I'm always mixing up, "to reside" (habiter) and, "to get dressed" (se habiller) which couldn't have helped my sentence above at all! (Once upon a time, a king dressed his castle. :)
Second, I *thought* that I had used, "vivait", and the question had corrected me with, "avait vécu", but I have come across the question on another quiz and see that I was wrong about that.
Merci !
Aurélie
Kwiziq language super star
23/03/18
Ok, that makes more sense :)
Thanks for your reply !
Bonne journée !
Laura
Kwiziq language super star
5/08/16
No, devoir has another meaning "to owe" which is in play here: " ... that Camille owed the handicap ..." More idiomatically, you might turn the whole sentence around and say "Camille's handicap was due to ..."
Jennifer
Kwiziq community member
5/08/16
Merci bien. Un ah ha moment
Jennifer
Joakim
Kwiziq community member
2 April 2016
1 reply
Confused
In another exercise, we were supposed to translate 'I got bored' to 'Je me suis ennuyé'. Isn't that also a state of being that should use l'imparfait?
Aurélie
Kwiziq language super star
4/04/16
Bonjour Joakim,
In French, you will use the same verb to express "to be bored" and "to get bored": s'ennuyer.
In the past tense you will be using either L'Imparfait or Le Passé Composé, to express slightly different nuances, as follows:
- Je me suis ennuyé means "I was/got bored" at the time, but this action/state is finished, over now.
- Je m'ennuyais expresses more a state in progress, like "I was being/getting bored", or a habit, a repetitive action like "I used to be bored".
I hope that's helpful.
David
Kwiziq community member
7 August 2018
0 replies
Is choice of imparfait or passé composé always black and white?
Is there only one correct choice for each sitaution or might different speakers view the situation differently and make different choices?
I find that I often get this sort of exercises wrong (for example in the "Un ville magique" test where I got 13/15 on my first attempt) but on looking again at the text and rereading the lessons I cannot convince myself that the alternative choice was better.
For example:
1. "L'endroit qui m'a enchanté au-dessus de tout, c'était le chateau de l'imperatrice Sissi". I had wrongly answered "m'enchantait" since Magalie being enchanted seems to me to be an ongoing state, not having a beginning and end.
2. "Je ne voulait pas plus repartir". I had wrongly answered "n'ai plus voulu" since the state of not wanting to leave would have ended when she actually did leave.