Question 1

How do we form the imperfect tense of être for this sentence?

Accepted Answer

The verb être (to be) is the only verb in French with an irregular stem in the imperfect tense. Instead of using the present tense "nous" form to find the stem, we use the special stem ét-. We then add the regular imperfect ending for tu, which is -ais, to make étais.

Question 2

How do we know the person being spoken to is female?

Accepted Answer

We can tell from the adjective studieuse. Adjectives that end in -eux in the masculine form, like studieux, change to -euse in the feminine form. Because the speaker is talking to a female tu, they must use studieuse.

Question 3

Does À cette époque literally mean "At that epoch"?

Accepted Answer

Yes, époque is related to the English word "epoch" or "era". In French, the phrase à cette époque is the standard, natural way to say "at that time" or "back then" when setting the scene for a story in the past.

Question 4

Why use cette instead of ce or ça here?

Accepted Answer

Cette is a demonstrative adjective that means "this" or "that" for feminine nouns. Because époque is feminine, we use cette époque. You would use ce for masculine nouns, and ça is a pronoun used to replace a noun entirely, not describe one.

À cette époque, tu étais studieuse.

Breakdown of À cette époque, tu étais studieuse.

Questions & Answers about À cette époque, tu étais studieuse.

Learn À cette époque, tu étais studieuse and more in French