Breakdown of J'étais impressionné, tu venais de faire de la magie.
je
I
être
to be
tu
you (informal singular)
faire
to do, to make
venir
to come
de la
some (partitive, feminine)
de
to (introducing an infinitive after a verb)
la magie
the magic
impressionné
impressed
Questions & Answers about J'étais impressionné, tu venais de faire de la magie.
Why does tu venais de faire translate to "you had just done"?
This is the past version of the "recent past" structure. Normally, venir de + an infinitive verb means "to have just done" something (tu viens de faire = you have just done). By putting the verb venir into the imperfect tense (tu venais), the action shifts further back in time to mean "you had just done" something.
Why use the imperfect tense J'étais instead of the passé composé J'ai été?
The imperfect tense is used to describe ongoing states of being, physical conditions, and emotions in the past. Because "being impressed" is a continuous feeling rather than a single, completed event with a clear start and end, J'étais is the correct choice here.
Why is it faire de la magie and not just faire magie?
In French, abstract nouns and uncountable things require a partitive article (which translates roughly to "some"). Just like you would say je bois de l'eau (I drink water / I drink some water), you must use de la before magie to express doing magic.
Would this sentence be written differently if the speaker were female?
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