How do I use the imperfect tense in French?

The imperfect tense is used to talk about actions that were interrupted. For example, 'I was walking the dog when I lost my bag'- this is an interrupted action. In French this would be "Je promenais mon chien quand j'ai perdu mon sac".You can tell when to use the imperfect in French if you look out for the construction 'was/were' and '-ing' in English- more examples would be "You were speaking when.." ("Tu parlais quand...") and "He was reading when..." ("Il lisait quand...")The imperfect tense is also used to talk about actions that happened regularly in the past.For example, "Every summer I used to stay with my granny". Because this is an action that you used to do every year, we use the imperfect tense. In French this would be "Chaque été je restais avec ma grand-mère".Finally, the imperfect tense is used to describe things in the past. For example, "there were a lot of people at the party"- in French would be "Il y avait beaucoup de gens à la fête".