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Il cherchait son ballon, mais il a trouvé une vieille corde.

Il cherchait son ballon, mais il a trouvé une vieille corde.
He was looking for his ball, but he found an old rope.
From Lesson 130:The imperfect tense for regular verbs (-ais, -ait)·French

Questions & Answers about Il cherchait son ballon, mais il a trouvé une vieille corde.

How do we form cherchait from the verb chercher?
Following the rule for the imperfect tense, you start with the present tense 'we' form: nous cherchons. Drop the -ons to get the stem cherch-, and then add the ending for il, which is -ait.
Why does the sentence use the imperfect for cherchait but the passé composé for a trouvé?
The imperfect (cherchait) sets the scene with an ongoing background action (he was looking). The passé composé (a trouvé) is used for the specific, completed event that happened during that time (he found).
The translation says 'looking for', but where is the French word for 'for'?
The verb chercher already means 'to look for' or 'to seek' all on its own. Adding a word like pour after it is a common mistake for English speakers, but it is not needed here!
Why is it une vieille corde instead of une corde vieille?
Vieille is the feminine form of vieux (old). It comes before the noun corde because adjectives describing age belong to a small group of common adjectives that are placed before the noun rather than after it.

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