What is the imperfect tense?

The imperfect tense is a past tense. There are three reasons why we might use the imperfect tense and these can be remembered as: habitual, incomplete and descriptive. What does 'habitual' mean? Habitual means that something used to happen regularly and in English we usually say 'I used to', for example, 'I used to play the guitar'. We would use the imperfect tense to translate this phrase to; 'je jouais de la guitare'. What does 'incomplete' mean? Incomplete means that an action was happening but was interrupted by another action. You can sometimes spot this type of phrase in English by the use of 'when', for example, 'I was tidying my room when my mum called me'. We would use the imperfect tense for the action which is incomplete; 'je rangeais ma chambre quand ma mère m'a appellé. What does 'descriptive' mean? Descriptive means exactly that! It is a description in the past, for example, a description of the weather; 'it was windy'. We would use the imperfect tense to translate this to 'il y avait du vent'.