The correct way to use the imperfect tense in French is possibly one of the biggest headaches for students of French. It is still a bit of a headache for me and still makes me nervous and uncomfortable. Still, I have learnt a bit about it and am going to share with you what I know and what I think I know. I sincerely hope that what I tell you will help you rather than cause difficulties for you.
If you recall an earlier post, I wrote that it is sometimes dangerous to draw analogies between two languages. The imperfect tense is a perfect example of this. The second you try to assign a specific meaning to the imperfect tense in Frencgh, you will become thoroughly confused and will make mistakes. When learning the imperfect tense in French, simply learn its functions - its uses - rather than trying to derive some kind of meaning.
Nothwithstanding the above, there is one instance where it is easy for English speakers to decide if they should use the imperfect tense in French: if the sentence is in the imperfect in English then it will be in the imperfect in French.
Examples
I was reading a book. Je lisais un livre.
I was leaving when he arrived. Je sortais lorsque il est arrivée.
Besides the examples listed, we use the imperfect in French for the following as well:
1. To indicate we used to do something
2. To indicate something we used to do habitually
3. To indicate something that went on for some time
4. To provide background information
Examples (Used to)
J'habitais en Londres. I used in live in London.
Elle comprenait russe. She used to understand Russian.
Examples (Habitual Actions)
Le lundi je visitais à ma sœur. Every Monday I would/used to visit my sister,
Chaque mois je mangeais a ce bistro. Each Month I ate/used to eat at this bistro.
Notice how in the examples above we could translate them using the words "used to". In other words, the situation of habitual action is actually exactly the same as the first situation where someone used to do something. Also notice how it is possible in the second example above to use the perfect tense of the word "eat", i.e. "ate" in the English translation. Do not even try to establish a correspondence between the perfect tense in English and/or the perfect and/or the imperfect tense in French. Always think about what the generic functions of the imperfect tense are in French and then, based on those, you can decide to use, or not use as the case may be, the imperfect tense.
Examples (Something that went on for some time)
J'habitais en Londres. I lived in London.
[You did not live in London for just one second.]
En 2002 j'étais à Paris. In 2002, I was in Paris.
[You were not in Paris for just one second unless you had a teleportation device.]
Examples (Providing Background Information)
L'orchestre jouait de la musique pendant que je prenais du dîner.
The bank played music while I ate my dinner.
Notice how in the English translation I used the perfect. Again, avoid thinking that the perfect in English must always be translated by the perfect in French. Here it is translated by the imperfect. The main action you could argue is that I am eating dinner. The fact that the band was playing music is additional, background information. You will often find the imperfect used in novels and in storytelling as it is often necessary to give background information. Also, if you think about this particular example and the English translation, it does not really make sense to say "the band played" as if they had finished playing. We understand that they played for a period of time while I was eating. In fact, if you think about it, you will realise that the English sentence uses the form of the perfect tense but the implied meaning is actually the imperfect.
I hope that so far you are reasonably okay with what I have said about the imperfect tense in French. I want to stress again that a big source of confusion for students of French is when they use the perfect tense in English and then try to logically link it in a one-to-one correspondence with French. Never ever do this. Never! Stick to what the functions of the imperfect tense are in French.
Let me now turn to when the imperfect tense in French really does cause tons of confusion for English speakers. In fact, it is debatable whether it is the imperfect tense or the perfect tense causing the confusion. Let us look first at the easier examples of when the perfect tense in English is translated by the perfect tense in French: if something happened and you are not trying to indicate any kind of duration, then use the perfect tense.
Example
Je lui ai dit. I told him.
[I am not trying to say I was busy telling him or I used to tell him or that I told him something on a periodic or regular basis. In one instant, one moment, one second, I told him something and that was it.]
Let us turn to the trickier examples. Let us translate the English sentence "I was in Paris in 2002" using both the perfect and the imperfect tense and let us then discuss the difference:
1. En 2002 j'ai été à Paris.
2. En 2002 j'étais à Paris.
Both sentences indicate I was in Paris but there is a slight difference in meaning or emphasis. In the second example the emphasis is on the duration (since I used the imperfect tense). In other words I am telling you something like "I lived in Paris in 2002". In the first example, there is no duration indicated (no imperfect tense), thus the emphasis falls on the act. The act is that I was in Paris, in other words I visited Paris. I know, I know, you could argue that you visited Paris for a few weeks, which is of some duration. I had those same questions over the years. Perhaps the distinction will become clearer if we temporarily ignore the phrase "en 2002". We would then have:
1. J'ai été à Paris.
2. J'étais à Paris.
To translate number 1, we could say "I have been to Paris". It is impossible to translate number 2 in this way. It can only be translated as "I was in Paris (for some time)". Getting back to the sentences containing "en 2002", we obviously cannot say in English "In 2002 I have been in Paris". However, the direct translation is neither important nor helpful in this case.Focus on the fact that someone is stressing they have been to Paris; they have visited the city.
Suppose you did visit Paris in 2002 and then you visit it again in 2013. When you get there you start speaking to one of the locals and you want to tell them you were in Paris in 2002. If you were to use sentence number 2, it would not make much sense. It would be like saying:
"In 2002, I used to be in Paris"
"In 2002, as background information for a story I am going to tell you as if I were writing a novel, I was in Paris." So, what happened next? Did you run into James Bond?
Let us consider two commonly used words that also cause headaches for English speakers learning French: vouloir and penser.
Consider these sentences:
1. J'ai voulu aller à Paris.
2. Je voulais aller à Paris.
In the second sentence, I am saying that I wanted for some time to go to Paris. In other words, I am saying "I have always wanted to go to Paris". Did I actually get there? Probably not, otherwise I would not have said "I have always wanted to go to Paris". Of course, I might also be giving you background information about how I had always wanted to visit Paris and later on in my story I might tell you how I actually made it.
Consider sentence 1. Perhaps I was having a bad day and in one second of that day I just felt like chucking it all up and moving to Paris. Perhaps I did. I might also utter sentence 1 when I decided on the spur of the moment to visit Paris. Sentence 1 might also be the answer to a question like "Why did you go to Paris?". The answer would be "Because I wanted to (at that moment)" (if we made adjustments obviously to sentence 1).
Let us consider an example with penser:
1. J'ai pensé à toi.
2. Je pensais à toi.
Again, the first example indicates something on the spur of the moment. Perhaps I saw a particular flower that you like and that reminded me instantly of you. In the second example, I have been thinking about you for some time. Perhaps I miss you, in which case we might translate sentence two as "I have been thinking about you".
I hope that my longwinded explanation of the uses of the imperfect have helped rather than muddied the water. I am certainly the first to admit that it can be very confusing for an English speaker. Remember: do not translate the English tense with the (seemingly) corresponding French tense in most instances. There are very few situations where there is a one-to-one correspondence.
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