If the imparfait had a tagline, it would be: the tense that paints the picture. When a French speaker wants to describe what a past scene was like — the weather, the surroundings, what people looked like, how they felt, what was going on in the background — the imparfait is the tool. Events happen on top of this backdrop in the passé composé; the backdrop itself is imparfait.
This is one of the most distinctive features of French past-tense grammar, and one of the hardest for English speakers to internalise, because English uses a single past tense for both backdrop and event (it was raining; the man waited; she had green eyes). French does not. This page covers the descriptive uses of the imparfait, the critical state-vs-change-of-state distinction, and the imparfait as the default tense for setting the scene.
Why descriptions go in the imparfait
The imparfait views an action or state from inside its duration — without specifying when it began or when it ended. That is exactly the perspective you want for descriptions. When you say "the street was deserted," you are not reporting an event; you are characterising a state that existed across a stretch of past time. The imparfait packages that "across-time-without-bounds" feeling into a single grammatical form.
The passé composé, by contrast, presents an action as bounded — completed, with internal structure visible from outside. That perspective is wrong for description. To say la rue a été déserte would suggest "the street was empty for a specific bounded period (and now it isn't)" — almost a reportable event. To say la rue était déserte is to set the stage: the deserted-ness is part of the picture, the backdrop, the way things were when whatever is about to happen happened.
The classic descriptive opening
French stories, novels, anecdotes, and casual reminiscences routinely open with a string of imparfait verbs that set the stage. Consider:
Il pleuvait. La rue était déserte. Un homme attendait sous un parapluie.
It was raining. The street was deserted. A man was waiting under an umbrella.
Three sentences, three imparfait verbs, and not a single thing has happened yet. The reader is being placed in a world. Whatever happens next — a car arriving, a stranger speaking, a phone ringing — will be in the passé composé, marking the entry of event into the scene.
C'était un dimanche matin tranquille. Le soleil brillait à travers les rideaux et l'odeur du café flottait dans la cuisine.
It was a quiet Sunday morning. The sun was shining through the curtains and the smell of coffee was floating in the kitchen.
La salle était pleine. Tout le monde parlait en même temps et personne n'écoutait vraiment.
The room was full. Everyone was speaking at once and no one was really listening.
Notice how each verb in these openings would be inappropriate in the passé composé. Il a plu says "it rained (at some point)" — a discrete weather event. Il pleuvait says "rain was the weather of the moment" — a backdrop. The choice is not stylistic; it is grammatical.
Weather and time setting
Weather expressions and time-setting expressions are almost always in the imparfait when they describe a past situation:
| French | English |
|---|---|
| il faisait beau | the weather was nice |
| il faisait froid / chaud | it was cold / hot |
| il pleuvait | it was raining |
| il neigeait | it was snowing |
| il y avait du vent | it was windy |
| il était minuit | it was midnight |
| il était tard | it was late |
| c'était l'hiver | it was winter |
| c'était le matin | it was morning |
These patterns are nearly automatic for native speakers. Il faisait is the default past-time weather phrase; c'était and il était are the default temporal frames. Learners who try il a fait beau for "the weather was nice (yesterday)" are misreading the function — they want il faisait beau (descriptive backdrop) unless they specifically mean "yesterday turned out to be a fine day overall, in summary."
Il faisait un froid glacial ce matin-là, et la neige tombait depuis trois heures.
It was bitterly cold that morning, and the snow had been falling for three hours.
C'était un samedi soir comme les autres, sauf que cette fois j'étais seule.
It was a Saturday night like any other, except that this time I was alone.
Physical description of people, places, things
The imparfait paints people, places, and objects exactly as it paints the weather: as states-of-being existing during a past period.
Elle avait les cheveux longs et les yeux verts, et elle souriait toujours quand elle parlait.
She had long hair and green eyes, and she always smiled when she spoke.
L'appartement était petit mais lumineux, avec une grande fenêtre qui donnait sur la cour.
The apartment was small but bright, with a big window that looked out onto the courtyard.
Mon grand-père portait toujours un vieux chapeau noir et fumait la pipe sur le balcon.
My grandfather always wore an old black hat and smoked a pipe on the balcony.
These are not events. Elle avait les yeux verts is not a sentence reporting an action — it is a sentence characterising a person. The imparfait is the only grammatical option here; elle a eu les yeux verts is bizarre (it would suggest she briefly possessed green eyes during some bounded interval, which is not what eye colour does).
Mental and emotional states
States of mind, feelings, opinions, and beliefs in past contexts are overwhelmingly imparfait:
| French | English |
|---|---|
| je pensais que... | I thought that... |
| je croyais que... | I believed that... |
| je savais que... | I knew that... |
| je voulais... | I wanted... |
| j'aimais... | I liked / I loved... |
| j'avais peur | I was afraid |
| j'étais content / triste / fatigué | I was happy / sad / tired |
| j'avais faim / soif / sommeil | I was hungry / thirsty / sleepy |
| j'avais envie de... | I felt like... |
Je ne savais pas quoi faire ; je n'avais jamais été dans cette situation auparavant.
I didn't know what to do; I had never been in this situation before.
Elle voulait partir mais elle n'osait pas le dire à ses parents.
She wanted to leave but she didn't dare tell her parents.
J'étais épuisé après le déménagement, et je n'avais qu'une envie : dormir.
I was exhausted after the move, and I just wanted one thing: to sleep.
These verbs (savoir, croire, penser, vouloir, pouvoir, devoir) acquire subtly different meanings when shifted to the passé composé — see special verbs in the imparfait for a careful treatment of those aspectual shifts.
Continuous ongoing actions in the background
The imparfait also covers actions that were in progress, ongoing, in the middle of happening — without specifying when they started or stopped:
L'orchestre jouait une symphonie de Beethoven et le public écoutait en silence.
The orchestra was playing a Beethoven symphony and the audience was listening in silence.
Les enfants couraient dans le jardin pendant que les adultes discutaient sur la terrasse.
The children were running in the garden while the adults were chatting on the terrace.
Pendant le voyage, on regardait par la fenêtre et personne ne parlait.
During the trip, we were looking out the window and no one was speaking.
This use of the imparfait corresponds almost perfectly to English was/were doing — the progressive past. Whenever you can render a verb in English with "was/were [-ing]," the imparfait is almost certainly your French choice.
The fairy-tale opening
A pure stylistic descendant of the descriptive imparfait: il était une fois — "once upon a time," literally "it was once." Every French fairy tale begins this way, and so do many narratives told to children:
Il était une fois, dans un royaume lointain, une jeune princesse qui rêvait de voir le monde.
Once upon a time, in a faraway kingdom, there lived a young princess who dreamed of seeing the world.
The imparfait does the work twice over here: il était sets the temporal frame, qui rêvait describes the princess's ongoing inner life.
Description vs. event in narrative: the central distinction
Now we get to the heart of the matter. In an actual story — even a one-paragraph anecdote — the imparfait and passé composé work together, layered. The imparfait carries the setting; the passé composé carries the events. Mixing them up turns a story into nonsense.
Consider this short passage:
Il pleuvait depuis le matin. Je travaillais chez moi, devant mon ordinateur. Vers quinze heures, mon téléphone a sonné. C'était mon frère. Il m'a dit qu'il était à la gare et qu'il n'avait pas de parapluie.
It had been raining since morning. I was working at home, at my computer. Around three p.m., my phone rang. It was my brother. He told me that he was at the station and that he had no umbrella.
Look at the tenses. Il pleuvait, je travaillais — backdrop, imparfait. Mon téléphone a sonné — event, passé composé. C'était mon frère — backdrop again (description of who was calling), imparfait. Il m'a dit — event, passé composé. Il était à la gare ... il n'avait pas de parapluie — what he reported, presented as a backdrop within his speech, imparfait.
This is the rhythm of French past-tense narration. The imparfait paints; the passé composé does. A story without imparfait sounds like a list of bullet points. A story without passé composé sounds like a still photograph. You need both.
C'était une nuit d'hiver. La neige tombait depuis des heures et le silence régnait sur la ville. Soudain, une voiture s'est arrêtée devant la maison.
It was a winter night. Snow had been falling for hours and silence reigned over the town. Suddenly, a car stopped in front of the house.
J'avais douze ans. Je rentrais de l'école avec mon frère quand on a vu de la fumée au coin de la rue.
I was twelve. I was coming home from school with my brother when we saw smoke at the corner of the street.
State vs. change of state — the critical distinction
This is the trickiest issue in descriptive imparfait usage, and it bites every learner. An ongoing state goes in the imparfait. A change of state goes in the passé composé.
| French | English | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| j'avais peur | I was afraid | state — imparfait |
| j'ai eu peur | I got scared | change of state — passé composé |
| je savais | I knew | state — imparfait |
| j'ai su | I found out / I learned | change of state — passé composé |
| il faisait froid | it was cold | state — imparfait |
| il a fait froid d'un coup | it suddenly got cold | change of state — passé composé |
| elle était triste | she was sad | state — imparfait |
| elle a été triste d'apprendre la nouvelle | she was upset to learn the news (i.e. became sad) | change of state — passé composé |
The passé composé of state verbs almost always means "entered the state" rather than "was in the state." This is one of the most subtle aspectual features of French, and getting it right is what separates a learner from a near-native speaker.
Quand il est entré dans la pièce, j'ai eu peur — son regard était glacial.
When he came into the room, I got scared — his look was ice-cold.
Je ne le savais pas, mais j'ai su plus tard qu'il avait déjà quitté la ville.
I didn't know it, but I found out later that he had already left town.
Notice the layering: je ne le savais pas (state — I didn't have the knowledge, imparfait), j'ai su plus tard (change of state — I came into the knowledge, passé composé).
The "I was at the cinema" trap
A subtle case English speakers find confusing: j'étais au cinéma vs. je suis allé au cinéma. Both can render English "I was at the cinema," but they do different work.
J'étais au cinéma quand tu m'as appelé — je n'ai pas pu décrocher.
I was at the cinema when you called — I couldn't pick up.
Here, being at the cinema is the descriptive backdrop. The phone call is the event that interrupts it. State → imparfait.
Hier soir, je suis allé au cinéma avec Lucie, et le film était excellent.
Last night, I went to the cinema with Lucie, and the film was excellent.
Here, going to the cinema is the event being narrated — a complete past activity, treated as a single point on the timeline. Event → passé composé. (Then le film était excellent — descriptive characterisation of the film — goes back to imparfait.)
The English sentence "I was at the cinema yesterday" is genuinely ambiguous between these two readings. French resolves the ambiguity by tense.
Common Mistakes
Mistake 1: Using passé composé for ongoing description.
❌ Il a plu et la rue a été déserte.
Incorrect — these are descriptive backdrops, not bounded events. They need the imparfait.
✅ Il pleuvait et la rue était déserte.
It was raining and the street was deserted.
Mistake 2: Using imparfait for a sudden change of state.
❌ Quand j'ai vu le serpent, j'avais peur.
Incorrect — seeing the snake caused a sudden onset of fear, which is a change of state. Use passé composé.
✅ Quand j'ai vu le serpent, j'ai eu peur.
When I saw the snake, I got scared.
Mistake 3: Choosing tense by event count, not by aspect.
❌ Je suis allé au cinéma quand tu m'as appelé.
Incorrect — this says 'I went to the cinema (event) when you called', implying you set off as a result of the call. Likely you were already there (state).
✅ J'étais au cinéma quand tu m'as appelé.
I was at the cinema when you called.
Mistake 4: Switching to passé composé for a person's appearance.
❌ Ma grand-mère a eu les cheveux blancs et a porté toujours un foulard.
Incorrect — physical description and habitual clothing belong in the imparfait.
✅ Ma grand-mère avait les cheveux blancs et portait toujours un foulard.
My grandmother had white hair and always used to wear a headscarf.
Mistake 5: Using passé composé for what someone wanted, thought, or believed.
❌ J'ai voulu partir, mais il a fait trop froid.
Incorrect aspectual reading — 'j'ai voulu partir' suggests 'I tried to leave', not 'I wanted to leave'.
✅ Je voulais partir, mais il faisait trop froid.
I wanted to leave, but it was too cold.
Key takeaways
The imparfait is the descriptive tense — the tense for backdrops, settings, and ongoing states of affairs in the past. Weather, surroundings, people's appearance, mental and emotional states, and continuous ongoing actions all default to the imparfait when situated in the past.
In narrative, the imparfait paints; the passé composé does. A complete French story alternates between the two layers — and that alternation is what makes French past-tense storytelling sound like French rather than translated English.
The trickiest cases are state-of-mind verbs (savoir, croire, vouloir, penser) and emotion verbs (avoir peur, être triste), where the imparfait describes the state and the passé composé describes entry into it. When in doubt, ask: is this a description, or is this something happening? Description → imparfait. Happening → passé composé.
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