Ma ville avant : imperfect of être, avoir and faire | French

Starter quiz

Match the French and English words linked to appearance and mood.

châtain

⇔

brown ✓

roux

⇔

red ✓

les lunettes

⇔

glasses ✓

les cheveux

⇔

hair ✓

fou

⇔

crazy ✓

inquiet

⇔

worried ✓
Match the imperfect tense verb endings with the subjects.

je

⇔

-ais ✓

elle

⇔

-ait ✓

nous

⇔

-ions ✓

vous

⇔

-iez ✓

ils

⇔

-aient ✓
Which statement correctly describes the stem needed to create the imperfect tense?

Take the 'vous' form of the verb in the present tense and remove -ez ending.

Take the 'nous' form of the verb in the present tense and remove -ons ending. ✓

Take the 'nous' form of the verb in the future tense and remove -ons ending.

Take the 'vous' form of the verb in the future tense and remove -ez ending.
Which imperfect verb best completes this sentence? 'Ils ______ des bâtiments intéressants avant.'

espéraient

construisaient ✓

excusaient

persuadaient
Which form should the verb 'reconnaitre' take here? Nous ______ la ville par ses bâtiments dans le passé.'

'reconnaissions' ✓
Put the words in order to make this sentence: I used to forgive the girls for being crazy.

1

⇔

j'

2

⇔

excusais

3

⇔

les

4

⇔

filles

5

⇔

d'

6

⇔

être

7

⇔

folles

Exit quiz

Match the French and English vocabulary.

plus de

⇔

more (of) ✓

se rappeler

⇔

to remember ✓

cependant

⇔

however ✓

moins de

⇔

less (of) ✓

plein

⇔

full ✓
Which word is missing in French? 'Il y ______ une vieille poste en ville.' There used to be an old post office in town.

'avait' ✓
Which is the correct word order to make this sentence? She used to be more patient in the past.

1

⇔

elle

2

⇔

était

3

⇔

plus

4

⇔

patiente

5

⇔

dans

6

⇔

le

7

⇔

passé
Which verb does not use the 'nous' form in the present tense with -ons removed as its imperfect tense stem?

avoir

faire

reconnaitre

être ✓
Which verb spelling is correct here? 'Ils ______ beaucoup de sport avant.' They used to do lots of sport before.

faisait

faisions

faisiez

faisaient ✓

font

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Lesson Details

Key learning points

'avoir' and 'faire' have regular stems in the imperfect tense: 'av-' and 'fais-'.
'être' has an irregular stem in the imperfect tense: 'ét-'.
'être', 'avoir' and 'faire' have regular endings in the imperfect tense: -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient
'il y avait' is the imperfect tense form of 'il y a', meaning 'there used to be'.

Common misconception

'Être' is used to translate the phrase 'there used to be'.

Although in English, 'there used to be' has the idea of being, this is not the case in French. The phrase 'il y a' means there is but the verb is 'a' which comes from avoir. It's the same with there used to be: 'il y avait'.

Keywords

Imperfect tense - tense used to describe how things were or used to be in the past, or to say what was happening
ét- - irregular imperfect stem of être - to be, being