The imparfait is one of the most regular tenses in French. Once you know how to form it for parler, you know how to form it for almost every verb in the language — there is exactly one irregular stem in the entire imparfait paradigm (être), and the endings never vary. The whole system is a single rule: take the nous form of the present, drop -ons, and add the imparfait endings.
This page walks through that rule, the six endings, the spelling adjustments triggered by -cer, -ger, and -ier verbs, the one true irregular (être), and the pronunciation traps that catch every English speaker — including the surprising case of faisais, where the spelling and the sound disagree.
The rule, in one sentence
Take the nous form of the present indicative. Drop -ons. Add the imparfait endings: -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient.
That is the entire formation rule. Every regular verb, every irregular verb, every -er, -ir, and -re verb obeys it. The only stem you have to memorise separately is ét- for être.
The six endings
| Person | Ending | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| je | -ais | /ɛ/ |
| tu | -ais | /ɛ/ |
| il / elle / on | -ait | /ɛ/ |
| nous | -ions | /jɔ̃/ |
| vous | -iez | /je/ |
| ils / elles | -aient | /ɛ/ |
Look closely at the pronunciation column. Four of the six forms — je, tu, il, ils — are pronounced identically: /ɛ/. The only audibly distinct forms are nous /jɔ̃/ and vous /je/. As with the present indicative, this homophony is why French requires a subject pronoun in every clause; without it, you cannot tell je parlais from il parlait by ear.
Full paradigm: parler (1er groupe)
Present nous form: nous parlons → drop -ons → stem parl-.
| Written form | Pronunciation | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| je parlais | /ʒə paʁlɛ/ | I was speaking / I used to speak |
| tu parlais | /ty paʁlɛ/ | you were speaking |
| il parlait | /il paʁlɛ/ | he was speaking |
| nous parlions | /nu paʁljɔ̃/ | we were speaking |
| vous parliez | /vu paʁlje/ | you were speaking |
| ils parlaient | /il paʁlɛ/ | they were speaking |
Quand j'étais étudiant, je parlais souvent avec ma grand-mère au téléphone.
When I was a student, I often talked with my grandmother on the phone.
Tu parlais à qui hier soir ? Je t'ai entendu rigoler depuis ma chambre.
Who were you talking to last night? I heard you laughing from my room.
Full paradigm: finir (2e groupe — note the -iss-)
Present nous form: nous finissons → drop -ons → stem finiss-.
This is the key insight for 2e-groupe verbs: the -iss- infix that appears in the plural of the present indicative carries through into the entire imparfait. Finir never reverts to the bare stem fin- in this tense.
| Written form | Pronunciation |
|---|---|
| je finissais | /ʒə finisɛ/ |
| tu finissais | /ty finisɛ/ |
| il finissait | /il finisɛ/ |
| nous finissions | /nu finisjɔ̃/ |
| vous finissiez | /vu finisje/ |
| ils finissaient | /il finisɛ/ |
The same -iss- shows up in choisir (choisissais), réussir (réussissais), grandir (grandissais), réfléchir (réfléchissais), applaudir (applaudissais), and the rest of the 2e groupe.
Je finissais à peine mes devoirs quand mes amis sont passés me chercher.
I was barely finishing my homework when my friends came to pick me up.
Nous choisissions toujours la même table près de la fenêtre.
We always used to pick the same table by the window.
Full paradigm: vendre (3e groupe -re)
Present nous form: nous vendons → drop -ons → stem vend-.
| Written form | Pronunciation |
|---|---|
| je vendais | /ʒə vɑ̃dɛ/ |
| tu vendais | /ty vɑ̃dɛ/ |
| il vendait | /il vɑ̃dɛ/ |
| nous vendions | /nu vɑ̃djɔ̃/ |
| vous vendiez | /vu vɑ̃dje/ |
| ils vendaient | /il vɑ̃dɛ/ |
À l'époque, mon père vendait des fruits sur le marché tous les samedis.
Back then, my father used to sell fruit at the market every Saturday.
Why the rule works for irregulars too
The genius of the nous-stem rule is that it neutralises most of what makes 3e-groupe verbs irregular. Verbs that have multiple stems in the present (like prendre: je prends but nous prenons) collapse to a single imparfait stem because we always start from nous.
| Infinitif | Nous form (présent) | Imparfait stem | 1sg imparfait |
|---|---|---|---|
| prendre | nous prenons | pren- | je prenais |
| boire | nous buvons | buv- | je buvais |
| croire | nous croyons | croy- | je croyais |
| voir | nous voyons | voy- | je voyais |
| écrire | nous écrivons | écriv- | j'écrivais |
| dire | nous disons | dis- | je disais |
| partir | nous partons | part- | je partais |
| venir | nous venons | ven- | je venais |
| connaître | nous connaissons | connaiss- | je connaissais |
| savoir | nous savons | sav- | je savais |
| pouvoir | nous pouvons | pouv- | je pouvais |
| vouloir | nous voulons | voul- | je voulais |
| devoir | nous devons | dev- | je devais |
| avoir | nous avons | av- | j'avais |
| aller | nous allons | all- | j'allais |
| faire | nous faisons | fais- | je faisais |
Notice that aller — the only irregular -er verb in the present — is perfectly regular in the imparfait: j'allais, tu allais, il allait, nous allions, vous alliez, ils allaient. The same is true of avoir: j'avais, tu avais, il avait, nous avions, vous aviez, ils avaient.
Mes parents allaient à la messe tous les dimanches matin.
My parents used to go to mass every Sunday morning.
Je voyais bien qu'il n'avait pas envie d'en parler.
I could clearly see that he didn't want to talk about it.
The faisais trap (faire)
Faire deserves its own paragraph. The 1pl present is nous faisons, written with ai, but pronounced /nu fəzɔ̃/ — with a schwa /ə/, not /ɛ/. This irregular pronunciation is preserved throughout the imparfait:
| Written form | Pronunciation |
|---|---|
| je faisais | /ʒə fəzɛ/ — NOT /fɛzɛ/ |
| tu faisais | /ty fəzɛ/ |
| il faisait | /il fəzɛ/ |
| nous faisions | /nu fəzjɔ̃/ |
| vous faisiez | /vu fəzje/ |
| ils faisaient | /il fəzɛ/ |
This is one of the most stigmatised pronunciation errors among non-natives. The written ai in faisais is a frozen historical spelling — the actual sound is a schwa, the same vowel as in je, me, le. If you pronounce je faisais with a clear /ɛ/ (/fɛzɛ/), you sound like a foreigner reading aloud.
The same /ə/ vowel applies to all compounds of faire: je refaisais, je défaisais, je satisfaisais.
Je faisais la queue depuis vingt minutes quand le magasin a fermé.
I had been queuing for twenty minutes when the shop closed.
Qu'est-ce que tu faisais hier soir ? On a essayé de t'appeler.
What were you doing last night? We tried calling you.
The sole irregular: être
Être is the only French verb whose imparfait stem is not derived from the nous form of the present (nous sommes, which would give an impossible somm-). Instead, it uses the historical Latin stem ét-:
| Written form | Pronunciation |
|---|---|
| j'étais | /ʒetɛ/ |
| tu étais | /ty etɛ/ |
| il était | /il etɛ/ |
| nous étions | /nu etjɔ̃/ |
| vous étiez | /vu etje/ |
| ils étaient | /il(z) etɛ/ |
The endings are still the regular six — only the stem is irregular. J'étais is one of the most frequent verb forms in spoken French; you will use it constantly in scene-setting (il était une fois, j'étais fatigué, c'était super).
Quand j'étais petite, je voulais devenir astronaute.
When I was little, I wanted to become an astronaut.
C'était la fête la plus mémorable de l'année.
It was the most memorable party of the year.
Mes voisins étaient très sympas, mais ils ont déménagé l'an dernier.
My neighbours were very nice, but they moved away last year.
Spelling adjustments: -cer, -ger, -ier verbs
Three small subgroups apply orthographic adjustments to keep the pronunciation consistent. These are not exceptions to the formation rule — they follow it exactly — but the spelling has to be tweaked to match what the ear expects.
-cer verbs: c → ç before a
Verbs in -cer (commencer, lancer, placer, annoncer, avancer, effacer, menacer, prononcer, remplacer) take a cedilla ç whenever the next letter would otherwise change the c from /s/ to /k/. In the imparfait, the endings -ais, -ait, -aient all start with a, so the cedilla appears in four of the six forms:
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| je | commençais |
| tu | commençais |
| il | commençait |
| nous | commencions |
| vous | commenciez |
| ils | commençaient |
Notice that nous and vous keep the plain c: the next letter is i, which already keeps c soft, so no cedilla is needed.
Le concert commençait toujours avec dix minutes de retard.
The concert always used to start ten minutes late.
-ger verbs: insert e before a
Verbs in -ger (manger, voyager, partager, ranger, changer, déménager, songer, plonger, neiger) insert a silent e between the g and any a-initial ending, again to preserve the soft /ʒ/ sound:
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| je | mangeais |
| tu | mangeais |
| il | mangeait |
| nous | mangions |
| vous | mangiez |
| ils | mangeaient |
Like -cer verbs, the inserted e shows up in four forms (je, tu, il, ils) and not in nous or vous — for the same phonological reason.
Nous voyagions souvent en train, surtout en été.
We often used to travel by train, especially in summer.
-ier verbs: the double-i in nous and vous
Verbs whose stem already ends in -i (étudier, oublier, crier, plier, prier, rire, sourire) produce the orthographically surprising sequences -iions and -iiez in the imparfait, because the stem-final i meets the -i- of the ending:
| Person | Form | Note |
|---|---|---|
| je | étudiais | — |
| tu | étudiais | — |
| il | étudiait | — |
| nous | étudiions | double i |
| vous | étudiiez | double i |
| ils | étudiaient | — |
The double i looks wrong but is correct. It is also the only way to distinguish the imparfait from the present in writing: nous étudions (present) vs. nous étudiions (imparfait). In speech, the difference is a slightly longer /j/ glide, but most speakers do not pronounce two distinct *i*s.
Quand nous étudiions ensemble, on prenait toujours des pauses café à la bibliothèque.
When we used to study together, we always took coffee breaks at the library.
Imparfait vs. conditionnel: don't confuse the spellings
A common written-form confusion: the imparfait endings (-ais, -ait, -aient) look almost identical to the conditionnel endings (-rais, -rait, -raient), and several forms differ by a single letter. The distinguishing feature is the -r- of the conditionnel:
| Imparfait | Conditionnel | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| je parlais | je parlerais | extra -er- |
| tu finissais | tu finirais | different stem |
| il vendait | il vendrait | extra -r- |
| nous étions | nous serions | different stem |
The imparfait describes what was happening or used to happen. The conditionnel describes what would happen under some condition. They are never interchangeable. See imparfait vs. conditionnel for the full contrast.
Je parlais à ma sœur quand le bus est arrivé.
I was talking to my sister when the bus arrived.
Je parlerais à ma sœur si elle n'était pas si occupée.
I would talk to my sister if she weren't so busy.
Common Mistakes
Mistake 1: Pronouncing faisais with /ɛ/ instead of /ə/.
❌ Saying 'je faisais' as /ʒə fɛzɛ/.
The 'ai' in fais- is pronounced as a schwa, not as /ɛ/. The correct pronunciation is /ʒə fəzɛ/.
✅ Je faisais /ʒə fəzɛ/ la cuisine quand tu as appelé.
I was cooking when you called.
Mistake 2: Forgetting the -iss- in 2e-groupe verbs.
❌ Quand j'étais petite, je finais à dix-sept heures.
Incorrect — finir keeps the -iss- of nous finissons throughout the imparfait.
✅ Quand j'étais petite, je finissais à dix-sept heures.
When I was little, I used to finish at five p.m.
Mistake 3: Using a present-tense form for nous and vous.
❌ Nous étudions le français hier soir pendant deux heures.
Incorrect — this is the present form. The imparfait is nous étudiions (with double i).
✅ Nous étudiions le français hier soir pendant deux heures.
We were studying French last night for two hours.
Mistake 4: Confusing the imparfait with the conditionnel in writing.
❌ Quand j'étais jeune, je jouerais au foot tous les jours.
Incorrect — jouerais is the conditionnel. For a past habit, you need the imparfait jouais.
✅ Quand j'étais jeune, je jouais au foot tous les jours.
When I was young, I played soccer every day.
Mistake 5: Forgetting the cedilla or inserted e in -cer / -ger verbs.
❌ Je commencais mes devoirs vers vingt heures.
Incorrect — without the cedilla, the c would be pronounced /k/. The correct form is commençais.
✅ Je commençais mes devoirs vers vingt heures.
I used to start my homework around eight p.m.
Mistake 6: Building the stem from the infinitive instead of from nous.
❌ Je prendais le métro tous les matins.
Incorrect — the imparfait stem comes from nous prenons, not from the infinitive prendre. The correct form is prenais.
✅ Je prenais le métro tous les matins.
I used to take the metro every morning.
Key takeaways
The imparfait is built from the nous form of the present: drop -ons, add -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient. There is exactly one irregular stem in the entire tense — ét- for être. Spelling adjustments for -cer, -ger, and -ier verbs follow the same rules as in the present, but apply to four of the six forms instead of just nous.
The four homophonous singular-and-third-plural forms (-ais, -ais, -ait, -aient) are all /ɛ/, so subject pronouns are again essential to disambiguate. And remember the faisais trap — written ai, pronounced /ə/.
Once you can derive any imparfait form from the nous-of-present rule, you have the formation locked. The harder work is choosing when to use the imparfait rather than the passé composé — see the habitual, descriptive, and interrupted-action pages for that.
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Start learning French→Related Topics
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- Spelling Changes in the Imparfait: -cer, -ger, -ier verbsB1 — Three small but mandatory orthographic adjustments in the imparfait — the cedilla in commencer-type verbs, the inserted -e- in manger-type verbs, and the surprising double-i in étudier-type verbs — plus a list of changes you do NOT need to make.
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