Good morning
'Scuse me, hello?
Hello? Johnny Bravo?
Do you know what the imparfait is?
Do you understand what I'm talking about here?
L'imparfait as in you're not as perfect as me.
Do you hear what I'm saying back there?
The imparfait, do you know what this means?
Yes, Mrs. Vandertramp.
It's like the past tense.
We just went over this last class, you crazy?
It's the passé composé.
It is not that simple.
I mean the passé simple.
No it is not.
The plus que parfait?
(Buzzer sound)
Oh! It's like was.
Excuse me, you are disrespecting all the perfection within my classroom. You need to leave.
You need to get out.
Git git. Go on git.
Oh thank god.
(French accordion music playing)
(Airhorn sounds)
You might be feeling like that in the classroom but don't you worry 'cause Damon and Jo have the answer.
Okay, so you may have watched the passé composé where we explained that to you.
Those are hard, staccato actions that are done.
Those are finished. Finito. Done, like "I read", "I ate", "I finished".
I am done. But then. But now.
You have the imparfait which is more of those ongoing actions or in your textbook,
it's always explained as a habitual action of the past and you're like "what does that mean?"
Okay. The imparfait is super useful because it's how you way "was" or "were" or "I used to" or "I would".
For example, "When I was 16, I was on the subway and I was reading a book while studying French".
All that is just imparfait. And guess what: it's not that hard to form or say, and so we're going to teach you
those things right now. Let's do it.
Okay, it's very simple. You're just going to step one, take the nous form in the present tense.
It sounds confusing but it's really not that hard.
Nous allons. We go. Nous chantons. We sing. Nous parlons. We speak.
You're going to take off the ending "ons" to get your stem.
Step two
The second step is pretty simple but you've got to memorize the verb endings which are
ais (ay), ait (ay), ait (ay), ions (ee-own), iez (ee-ay), aient (ay)
So I'm just going to tell you this sounds the same, this sounds the same, this sounds the same and this sounds the same.
That's crazy. That's why it's so easy because you got like two chances to get it wrong really.
Eh! It's easy when you're speaking but when you're writing, you've got all those different endings.
But it's simple. (Record scratch)
Can we take a moment for this? Like A - I - E - N - T? Like..."ay"? Huh? What?
Yeah like (buzzer sound) (record scratch)
Now I'm going to add our root and our endings
So we're going to do "allez" (to go), which is "allais". J'allais. Tu allais. Il/Elle allait. Nous allions. Vous alliez. Ils/Elles allaient.
Ding! Oh! Now what if we want to do "chanter" (to sing)?
Oh! This is so simple!
What you want to do, you're going to take "chantons", drop the "ons", take your root
and chantais... So now what? That...you're missing letters over there.
(laughs)
That's a vowel missing.
Chantais. Chantais. Chantait. Chations. Chantiez. Chantaient.
It's the exact same thing: "When I was younger, I was always singing"
"When I was younger, I used to sing a lot"
"When I was younger, I would sing all the time"
Are there irregulars? What do I need to know?
être (to be). Only one and it's super simple. All you've got to know is this: ét.
I'm about to do it right now. Put it right here.
When I was younger
"When I was younger, I was always singing" (fast-forwarded) This is the brilliant verb tense.
Okay, the imparfait may sound kind of simple, but then you have things in English where you'd say things like
"When I was younger, I played tennis"
It sounds like you finished playing tennis but really you played tennis the entire time that you were young.
You still use this, you guys! So...
Okay so now you know why you use it and how to use it, so let's get some sentences, Damon.
Uh, putting me on the spot like that. Okay, how about this...
"When you called me..." Done! That was an action that happened in the past. That's passé composé. Exactly.
When you called me....like it's so staccato. When you called. I called you. Called. I wasn't calling you, I called you once.
And I don't call you again.
That's the example.
I was talking to my mom, when you called me. ( Je parlais à ma mere, quand tu m'as appelé.)
All of a sudden you called me, threw off my whole activity, but all of that was happening in the past.
Alright so again, imparfait is super useful when you're telling stories in the past
or when you're talking about things you use to do that you don't do anymore. For instance...
I used to learn French. Me too! That is in the past for me. How about this? I used to teach French. In the past.
Like I used to run in the gym...in the past.
Hopefully this helped you in some way?
I know that it helped me 'cause I had to like think about what I used to know
(laughing) to relearn it. Don't forget to give this video a thumbs up. Comment below, was this helpful? If not...sorry.
No we're going to come back with another video.
Most importantly, if you want more French videos, or just travel videos, or videos in other languages
make sure to subscribe and we will see you next time! (kissing noises) Bisou! (Kisses!)
(static) Maybe it is really confusing...
Ms. Vandertramp knows what's best for y'all kids. Next lesson is on me.
I hope you learned something! If you want to keep learning french, there are two more videos over there.
Keep watchin'. Keep watchin'. Keep subscribing. We gon' see you next time.
Okay you little smarty-pants, so what does that even mean?
(laughs)