CBF 2:23 | More on the imperfect tense

[Music] Bonjour et bienvenue à Coffee Break French. Welcome back once again to Coffee Break French. Last time we were looking at the Imperfect Tense. In lesson 63, we're going to be continuing to look at the Imperfect Tense and this time talk a little more about the formation of the tense. After the lesson, you'll be able to conjugate verbs in the Imperfect. I hope that you enjoy this lesson of Coffee Break French. [Music] Now in lesson 62, we were looking at the Imperfect Tense and we're going to continue with this tense today. We're going to start with a little review of what we covered last time. So to begin with Anna, can you tell me how you form the perfect tense? Where do you go to start? What's your starting point, first of all? You have to start with the new part of the verb. In which tense? The present tense. That's right. So we go to the new part of the verb in the present tense. Last time we just looked at er verbs. So let's take an er verb, let's take Bavardi to chat. So what would the new form of the present tense be Anna? Nu Bavardon. Nu Bavardon. So what do we do? We take off the ONS. Yep and then we're going to add the Imperfect Endings for "je tue il elle" and so on. So let's see if Anna can remember these endings. First of all, what's the ending for "je"? E-I-S. That's right and the "tue" form? Anna? E-I-S. That's right, it's the same as the "je" form. What about the "il" or "elle" form? E-I-T. And then let's move on to the new form of the Imperfect tense. I-O-N-S. Yep, I-O-N-S. You've got to remember the "i" there. And what about the "vou" form? I-E-Z. Correct. And then the "il-elle" plural form. E-I-E-N-T. That's correct. So let's take Bavardi and conjugate the whole verb in the Imperfect. I'll see it first and then Anna, if you can leave the listeners a chance to repeat a menu repeat after that, okay? Okay. So "je" Bavardi. "je" Bavardi. "tu" Bavardi. "tu" Bavardi. "il" Bavardi. "il" Bavardi. "elle" Bavardi. "elle" Bavardi. "nous" Bavardillon. "nous" Bavardillon. "vous" Bavardier. "vous" Bavardier. "il" Bavardais. "il" Bavardais. "elle" Bavardais. "elle" Bavardais. Now, the way we translated this last week was by using "was" doing something or "we're" doing something. So, for example, "je" Bavardais would be. "I was chatting." Yeah, and "nous" Bavardillon. "We were chatting." Listen to the difference between the present and imperfect tense is here. "nous" Bavardons. "nous" Bavardons. As we are chatting in the present tense or we chat, and "nous" Bavardillon. "nous" Bavardillon. We were chatting in the imperfect tense. And we also introduced the idea of the imperfect tense being interrupted by the perfect tense. So, for example, "nous" Bavardillon. "We were chatting." That's your kind of "roller" as we described it last week. "nous" Bavardillon. "qu'en elle est arrivée." "We were chatting when she arrived." And that's the "thtoum." "She arrived" was the "thtoum" which interrupted the "roller." The perfect tense which interrupted the imperfect. Now, today we're going to look at more formation of the imperfect tense. And next week, we'll look at more use of the imperfect tense so that hopefully by the end of lesson 64, you'll be totally sorted on using the imperfect tense. We've already looked at "ir" verbs. Bavardae, parle, mange, and so on. We'll come back to mange a little later. Let's now look at "are" verbs. And there's some good news here because "are" verbs work exactly the same as "ir" verbs. All you need to do is go to the new form of the present tense just as with "ir" verbs, take off the ONS, and add your imperfect endings which we've already learned. A-I-S, A-I-T, I-O-N-S, I-Z, A-I-E-N-T. So, let's take "vendre." Which means, of course, "to sell." And let's take the new form of the present tense. "Le vendon." "Le vendon." Take off the ONS and add your imperfect endings. So, Anna, how would you say "I was selling?" "Je vendais." "Je vendais." And what about "you little were selling?" "Veux vendiers." "Veux vendiers." And what about "we were selling?" "Le vendon." So, "we were selling the house." "Le vendon la maison." Okay, and how do you say "we are selling the house?" "Le vendon la maison." Exactly, so the difference being "nous vendons" and "nous vendions." And the same happens with the "eez" form in the present tense, becoming "eez" in the imperfect tense for the "vous" form. So, "vous vendez, "you all are selling." And "vous vendiez, "you all were selling." So, let's run through the whole verb. "Je vendais, tu vendais, il vendais, elle vendait." You try, Anna? "Je vendais, tu vendais, il vendait, elle vendait." And "nous vendions, vous vendiez, il vendait, elle vendait." Anna? "nous vendions, vous vendiez, il vendait, elle vendait." Very bien. Let us all unite to know about our verbs in the imperfect tense. Okay? Let's move on to "I are verbs." The good news again is that they work exactly the same way. However, there's something that we need to remember about how "I are verbs" work in the present tense. And this is where you'll need to think back to when we looked at the "I are verbs" in the present tense, back in lesson 42 or 43, I think. So, let's go through the whole of the present tense of the verb "fineer." Which means "to finish." So, Anna, how do you say "in the present tense", "I finish"? "Je finis." "Je finis," "you finish." "Tu finis." "Tu finis," "he finishes." "Il finis." "She finishes." "El finis." Now, let's see if you remember how to say "we finish." Anna. "Nu finissons." "Nu finissons." "Tra bien, très bien, très bien." You remember that you need to add the "issons" ending for the "I are verbs" in the present tense. So, now that we've reached that, of course the "vous form" would be "vous finiser" and the "Il" and "El plural form" would be "Il finis," "El finis." But let's go back to the "nous" form, because that's what we're using to form the "emperfect tense." "Nu finissons?" A rule for the "emperfect" is take off the "o-n-s" and add your "emperfect" endings and nothing changes for "I are verbs" here. So, we take the "o-n-s" off "nu finissons" and add the "emperfect" endings, which means that "I was finishing" would be "Je finissé." "Je finissé?" Exactly. "Je finissé." And you were finishing. "To finissé." "To finissé." "He was finishing." "Il finissé." "Ey, she was finishing." "El finissé." "We were finishing." "Nu finissons." "Nu finissons?" Very well. "You all were finishing." "Veux finissiers." "Veux finissiers." And they were finishing. "Il finissé." That's it. How do you spell that one? That was V-L-F-I-N-I-S-S-A-I-E-N-T. Very well. That's it, okay? F-I-N-I-D-S-A-I-E-N-T with the A-I-E-N-T ending of the imperfect tense for "Il" or "El plural." Okay, we're going to take a short break there and we'll be back in just a moment. Now, if you'd like to get more out of your coffee break French experience, then you can sign up for the premium version of the course. And that includes video versions of each lesson, where you'll see the words and phrases on the screen of your device. There are lesson notes and also bonus audio episodes available to help you consolidate what you've learned in the main episode. You can find out more about the premium version of coffee break French at the Coffee Break Academy. That's at coffeebreakacademy.com. Okay, let's get on with the lesson. So, we now know how to conjugate Y-R verbs, R-E verbs, and I-R verbs in the imperfect tense. Last week, we looked at the verb "manger", which works slightly differently, because we need to add an E-N in order to keep the G sound soft in "je manger". Now, that E is also in in the new form of the present tense, so in a sense, it doesn't really change hugely. We don't need the E, because the I, which is part of the imperfect ending, does the same job as the I would do. Let's look at the word "nage", which means "to swim", and it works in the same way as "manger", because it ends in G-E-R. Now, we already know another word for "to swim", and it reflects a verb, and I can you remember what that was? "sobenje", exactly. But let's concentrate on "nage" for just now, because it serves our purpose of ending in G-E-R. How would you see that an "I" was swimming? "je nage", "je nage", now how would you spell "je nage"? Well, from whatever I've already learned, N-E-T-I-I-S. That's right, you keep N-E, because otherwise it would be "je nage", which doesn't really sound right at all. How would that be spell "ana"? N-E-T-I-O-N-S, because this time, the "i" of the "ion" in perfect ending, does the job of keeping the G soft, "nous nageons", and "vous nagez" works in the same way. Another example of a verb like this would be "ranger". And "ranger" means to put things away. For example, at the end of a class, a teacher might say, "Ranger vos affaires", "Put away your things, vos affaires, literally your affairs". It could also be used for putting away "dichis" after a meal or something like that. But "ranger" ends in "gyr", so it's another of these verbs that follows the same pattern in the imperfect tense. So to say, "I was putting away my things", you would say, "je ranger mes affaires", in this case, "je ranger mes affaires". And how would you spell "ranger"? "R-E-N-G-I-E-I-S". It's a lot of time, well done. So we've got "manger", "ranger" and "nage". Let's look at the other type of spelling-changing verbs. And these are verbs that end in C-E-R. Okay? A very common one would be "commencé". "Commencé", which means "to start". Yeah. We've not really covered these in any great detail yet, but in the present tense, these verbs change slightly too. Verbs the end in C-E-R. So it would be "je commence", "tu commence, il commence", "elle commence", straightforward enough. But when we get to the new form, it becomes "nou commence son". And probably that doesn't sound any different, it sounds exactly as you would expect. However, in French, when C is followed by an O, if you think about how that would be written, it would be C-O-M-M-E-N-C-O-N-S, and if you've got C followed by an O, then the C would have to be hard. It would sound like "kuh", "nou commence son". And of course, that's not the correct way of pronouncing the verb. So this is where that little "sidilla" comes in. The "sidilla" is the little diacritic mark that is written under a C. It kind of looks like part of a number five. And it's used to make the "kuh" sound into a "s" sound before A, O or U. So we add a "sidilla" to the C in "nou commence son" in order to keep it a soft C sound. And therefore, if we're doing that in the present tense of "commancé", then we have to also do it in the "imperfect tense" because we go to the new form of the present tense and take off the "o-n-s" and then add our "imperfect endings". So Anna, how would you spell "je commence son", meaning "I was starting" or "I was beginning" using the "imperfect tense"? You would spell it C-O-M-M-E-N-C with our little "sidilla" A-I-S. That's exactly right. So you put on the "sidilla" to keep the C sound soft. Otherwise, it would be "je commence son", and obviously that doesn't sound right. So "je commence son", "je commence son", "il commence son", "elle commence son", and I guess he says "it's just what happens with "nous commence son". And you don't need the "sidilla" anymore. That's correct because the "i" of the ending "i-o-n-s" keeps the C sound soft. "nous commence son", you don't need "assidilla". Now, another couple of examples of verbs that end in C-E-R could be "annoncer". "annoncer" which means "to announce" and "menace". Which isn't quite as nice a word, it means "to threaten or to menace". So, for example, "il commence son" would mean "he was threatening". "il commence son", and there would be a "sidilla" on the C. Okay, enough of the spelling changing verbs. By this time, I'm guessing you've probably had enough of the formation of the "imperfect tense". However, there's one more thing I'd like to do, and that is cover all the irregular verbs in the "imperfect tense". And don't you think we've done enough for today? Well, there's some good news here too, because believe it or not, there's only one irregular verb in the "imperfect tense". And that verb is "etre". Okay, that's okay. So can we do it? Yes. Okay, let's continue with "etre" before we finish this lesson. Now "etre" has an irregular stem in the "imperfect tense", and then all the endings are completely regular. The reason for this is if we went to the new form of the present tense of "etre", we would get "nu som". That's right. And the thing is that "nu som" doesn't really lend itself to forming the "imperfect tense". So instead, the root or the initial part of the verb "etre" in the "imperfect" is "i akute ti". So adding the ending zone, you get, "gete". "gete". "Tu était". "Tu était". "Il était". "Il était". "El était". "El était". "Nous étions". "Nous étions". "Vous étiez". "Vous étiez". "Il était". "Il était". "El était". "El était". Now, this is a really common verb, so it's worth knowing this, really off my heart. And not only could it be translated as "I was being", for example, "J'étais malade, I was being ill, it's also very commonly translated as just "I was". Now, we're going to look more at that next week when we learn exactly how to use the "imperfect tense". Have we really learned how to form everything in the "imperfect tense" now? Yep, every single verb in the French language we can now form in the "imperfect tense". We've learned the regular "er", "ir" and "aree verbs". We've learned how to deal with the spelling changes, the "ger" and "c-e-r" ending verbs. And we've also learned the "erregular", "single" irregular verb in the "imperfect tense", "etre", "j'étais", "tu-et-e" and so on. Now, although we've not really mentioned them specifically, we can even now conjugate reflexive verbs in the "imperfect". So, for example, "Je me lavere quand le téléphone assonnais, "I was washing myself when the phone rang" and so on. But I think that's where we'll leave it for today. And that's where we're going to leave it today for this edition of Coffee Break French. Thanks for joining us and we hope it's been useful. You can join the Coffee Break French Community on Facebook at facebook.com/coffeebreakfrench and we're @LearnFrench on Twitter. Merci beaucoup et à bientôt. This is the production of the RadioLingua Network. 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