Using the imperfect
Week 16 built the forms. This is what they are for. The imperfect answers "what was it like?" — never "what happened?".
Three uses, and everything else follows from them.
1. Habit — what used to happen, repeatedly.
- Quand j'étais petit, j'allais à l'école à pied.
- Tous les samedis, nous mangions chez ma grand-mère. English marks this with used to or would: "I used to walk to school."
2. Description — how things and people were.
- La maison était grande et il y avait un jardin.
- Elle portait un manteau rouge.
- Il faisait froid. States, weather, age, appearance, feelings, opinions — all imperfect.
3. An action in progress, as a background.
- Je dormais. — I was sleeping.
- Ils regardaient la télévision.
The verbs that live in this tense. être, avoir, pouvoir, vouloir, savoir, penser, croire, and il y a → il y avait. They describe states, and states are what the imperfect is for, so in a past narrative they turn up in the imperfect far more often than not.
The words that announce it:
| quand j'étais petit | when I was little |
|---|---|
| à cette époque | at that time |
| tous les jours / chaque semaine | every day / every week |
| d'habitude | usually |
| avant | before, in the old days |
What it is not. The imperfect does not report a finished event. Hier, je mangeais une pomme does not say you ate one — it sets a scene and leaves the sentence waiting for what happened next. The finished event is the passé composé, and putting the two together is week 18.
What this unlocks
Knowing the rule is not the same as producing it.
This page explains the pattern. The track drills it: the point arrives inside a mini-dialogue, then production marked against a CEFR descriptor, then a module test that returns you to your two weakest sessions if you miss it.