Learn French: Tu étais studieux, mais jamais ridicule. - You were studious, but never ridiculous.

Tu étais studieux, mais jamais ridicule.

You were studious, but never ridiculous.

Breakdown of Tu étais studieux, mais jamais ridicule.

être

to be

you (informal singular)

Questions & Answers about Tu étais studieux, mais jamais ridicule.

Why is the stem for étais different from how we normally form the imparfait?

Normally, to find the stem for the imparfait, you take the nous form of the present tense and drop the -ons. However, être is the only exception in French! Its present tense nous form is sommes, which doesn't end in -ons. Because of this, it uses a special irregular stem: ét-. We then add the regular imparfait ending -ais for tu.

Why is it just jamais instead of ne ... jamais?

The word ne is only used when there is a conjugated verb to attach to. In the second half of this sentence, the verb étais is implied but not actually repeated. Since there is no verb right there to surround, jamais stands alone to mean never.

Would studieux change if a woman was being spoken to?

Yes! Adjectives ending in -eux in the masculine form change to -euse in the feminine form. If you were speaking to a woman, you would say Tu étais studieuse.

Does ridicule also need to change for a female subject?