Language/French/Grammar/Easy-way-of-generating-the-imperfect-tense

An easy way of generating the imperfect tense

For all regular verb conjugations, take the first person plural nous form of the present tense, omit -ons and add the following endings:

Endings

je	tu	il/elle	nous	vous	ils/elles
-ais	-ais	-ait	-ions	-iez	-aient

Examples

For example:

Infinitive	First person plural	Stem	Imperfect tense
donner	donnons	donn-	je donn- ais, etc.
commencer	commençons	commenç-	je commenç- ais, etc.
partager	partageons	partage-	je partage- ais, etc.
finir	finissons	finiss-	je finiss- ais, etc.
dormir	dormons	dorm-	je dorm- ais, etc.
vendre	vendons	vendre-	je vend- ais, etc.
recevoir	recevons	cev-	je recev- ais, etc.

Related Lessons

• Nouns which refer both to males and to females
• Easy future
• Masculine and feminine forms of adjectives — A change in written and spoken French
• Beau VS Bel
• Use of jamais
• Quantifiers — tout and chaque
• Position of more than one object pronoun with faire etc. + infinitive
• How to use falloir
• Omission of the article in lists
• Adjectives which normally follow the noun but can also precede, without significant changes in meaning
• Ditransitive verbs
• on as an equivalent for English 'you'
• Easy way of generating the imperfect subjunctive
• Past Tense
• Benefactive me, te, se, nous, vous