Don't forget that in addition to "was" and "were" the imperfect tense can also be translated as "used to" Je parlais italien quand j'étais petit. = I used to speak Italian when I was little.
my french teacher taught us that in -er endings to drop the -er and then add the -ais etc. Does this also work? I got confused after seeing you explain it
That *almost* works just as well, but not 100% of the time. The way in the video is the most useful. For example, if you did what your teacher suggests with manger, you would get "je mangais," which is wrong. Still, it might be good for a shortcut sometimes. conjugator.reverso.net/conjugation-french-verb-manger.html
Bonjour! Those are stems. Lis is a stem for Lire (to read), parle is a stem for Parler (to speak), and boi is a stem for Boire (to drink). This video shows you how to change those verbs and add endings to form the imperfect, but you can also use those stems to form other tenses (present, for example). Here's a link to our video on stems and endings (aka conjugation) in their most basic, present tense: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-beN7mtNHAd8.html
But like how is this going to help talk to people on the street in france???? Do people actually think about if they are speaking in the correct tense when having conversation???
Hi Kane. Native speakers definitely don't have to break down their own tenses into smaller lessons like this. The problem is that most of us are learning French; we aren't native speakers. That means that instead of being able to go out on the street and starting to engage in conversation immediately, we have to build up our grammar and vocabulary from nothing, which is what these videos aim to do. If you prefer jumping into immersion, you might like this channel! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-At3ZJO0VVI4.html Notice that nothing is explained - just translated. If that works for you, that is awesome. You are really lucky!
I keep hearing explanations only referring to actions that are repeated or durable in the past for using the imparfait, but shouldn't you also add descriptions of conditions or states of being in the past? (J'ai vu cette fille au bal l’année dernière et elle ÉTAIT belle) Being beautiful was not some "action," repeated or otherwise, but was a description of a "state" of being.
Bonjour Duane, Yes, if an explanation were to go beyond the absolute beginner level, it would explicitly include descriptions and states of being. However, the basic explanation still works for your example! In "Elle était belle," the continuous action is "était," from the verb être. Indeed, being beautiful (or being anything else) is a continuous action. Especially for English speakers or monolingual students, it's not natural to consider "to be" a verb/action right away... but it is, with infinitive and conjugated forms just like all other more obvious action words. Hope that helps!
This video really hurts me. My class paid $200 each for VHL and its explanations are never thorough, and then it throws you into 35+ graded assignments per week. Not only do we all need to complete VHL, then we need to address outside resources like this and are even incentivized with extra credit to use the tutoring center, which not everybody has time for.
Sunt plus verbae Latine. Tamen, amo dicere verbas gallicas quoniam didici hoc linguam primam. Mens meus nam habet duam linguam et est difficile dividere.
