Log inSign up

Il pleurait quand il perdait le ballon.

Il pleurait quand il perdait le ballon.
He used to cry when he lost the ball.
From Lesson 130:The imperfect tense for regular verbs (-ais, -ait)·French

Questions & Answers about Il pleurait quand il perdait le ballon.

How do we form pleurait and perdait from the present tense?
We start with the present tense 'we' form of the verbs pleurer (nous pleurons) and perdre (nous perdons). We drop the -ons at the end, leaving the stems pleur- and perd-. Then we add the imparfait ending for il, which is -ait.
Why is 'he lost' translated with the imparfait (il perdait) instead of the passé composé (il a perdu)?
The imparfait is used for habits and repeated actions in the past. The English translation says 'He used to cry,' which tells us this happened repeatedly. Because he cried every time he lost the ball, losing the ball was also a repeated event, so perdre needs to be in the imparfait too.
I always mix up 'crying' and 'raining'. How can I tell them apart here?
It is a very common mix-up! 'To cry' is pleurer, which gives us il pleurait (he was crying). 'To rain' is pleuvoir, which gives us il pleuvait (it was raining). Notice the 'v' in the word for rain!
Could I use la balle instead of le ballon?
It depends on the game! In French, le ballon is a large, usually inflatable ball like a soccer ball or basketball. La balle is a smaller ball, like a tennis ball or baseball. The use of le ballon suggests he was playing a sport like soccer.

Learn Il pleurait quand il perdait le ballon and more in French

All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.

  • ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
  • ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
  • ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free
Start learning French →