The Imperfect tense indicates what was, or was happening, or happened regularly in the past and which stopped happening now. It emphasizes time, habit, repetition, aspect, condition or state.
Mon père travaillait dans une usine.
My father worked in a factory.
The verb “travaillait” means that my father worked for a certain period of time in a factory, but is no longer working in a factory now.
Madame Dupont était une femme de classe.
Madame Dupont was a classy woman.
The verb “était” shows that Madame Dupont is either dead or stopped being classy.
Quand j’étais petit, je faisais souvent des bêtises.
When I was young, I often misbehaved.
Here we have two verbs in the imperfect tense: “étais” and “faisais”. The two verbs indicate an action or a state that no longer exist now.
Let’s conjugate the verb “finir” into the imperfect tense:
Mon père travaillait dans une usine.
My father worked in a factory.
The verb “travaillait” means that my father worked for a certain period of time in a factory, but is no longer working in a factory now.
Madame Dupont était une femme de classe.
Madame Dupont was a classy woman.
The verb “était” shows that Madame Dupont is either dead or stopped being classy.
Quand j’étais petit, je faisais souvent des bêtises.
When I was young, I often misbehaved.
Here we have two verbs in the imperfect tense: “étais” and “faisais”. The two verbs indicate an action or a state that no longer exist now.
The Verbs of the second group
The verbs of the second group end in “ir” and their present participle end in “issant”. They are considered regular verbs because they follow the same conjugation in all tenses.Let’s conjugate the verb “finir” into the imperfect tense: