Imparfait (Imperfect)

Used to express what someone was doing or what someone used to do or to describe something in the past. The imperfect refers particularly to something that continiued over a period of time. When speaking of a habits in past, discription in past, any background details, the circumtance of the situation(the place, the date, the hour), the emotions, sentiments, and the souvenirs.

stem of the first person plural of the present tense(the nous form minus -ons) + the following endings:

Example

Note : the only irregular imperfect is être

• continuous actions

    -il prenait un bain quand le téléphone a sonné(he was taking a bath when the phone rang)
    -excuse-moi, je pensais à autre chose(I am sorry, I was thinking of something else)
  

Note: the continous nature of the action can be emphasised by using être en train de + infinitive

-j'étais en train de faire le ménage(I was (busy in the process of) doing the housework)

• regular actions in the past

    -je le voyais souvent quand il habitait dans le quartier(I saw him often when he lived in the neighborhood)
    -quand il était plus jeune il voyageait beaucoup(when he was younger he used to travel a lot)
  

• descriptin in the past

    -il faisait beau ce jour-là(the weather as fine that day)
    -c'était formidable(it was great)
    -elle portait une ribe bleue(she wore a blue dress)
    -elle donnait sur la rue(it looked onto the street)
  

• to describe an action which had started in the past and was still going on at a given time(using depuis(since, for))

    -elle le connaissait depuis son enface(she had known him since (his) childhood)
    -il attendait depuis trois heures quand on est arrivé(he had been waiting for three hours when we arrived)
  

But: if the sentence is negative or if the action had been completed, the pluperfect(Plus-que-parfait (Pluperfect)) instead of imperfect.

• il y avait...que + imperfect is used to translate 'for' -il y avait longtemps qu'elle habitait seule/elle habitait seule depuis longtemps(she had lived alone for a long time)