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GRAMMAR SHEET

The imperfect and the past perfect (A2)

USE AND TRAINING

THE IMPERFECT PAST TENSE

• Use: The imperfect is used to make a description, to
express an action that lasts, which is not finished in the past, to
speak of past habits.
• Formation: stem of the verb in the 1st person plural of the present
indicative + endings “-ais” “-ais” “-
ait” “-ions” “-iez” “-aits”
• Irregular verbs: be (I was, you were...)
• The negation frames the verb.
Ex: I didn't like coffee.
• Use: The past perfect tense is used to express a one-off action,
completed in the past.
• Formation: auxiliary “being” or “having” in the present + past
participle of the verb
To be: 14 verbs (to be born, to die, to rise, to descend, to go,
to come, to leave, to arrive, to return, to remain, to enter, to leave,
to fall, to become) + pronominal verbs
Agreement of the past participle with the subject!
Have: other verbs
Agreement of the past participle with the COD if it is placed
before the verb!
• Irregular past participles: have (had), be (been),
take (taken), put (put), know (know), see (seen), drink (drank),
want (wanted)...
• The negation frames the auxiliary.
Ex: I didn't like the coffee.

EXERCISES

ÿ Conjugate verbs in the imperfect or past tense:

1. (be) I was very tired, so I (go) went to bed.
2. We (ride) drove quietly. Suddenly, a car (exit) quickly came out of a small road on the right and
(hit) hit the back of our car.
3. I (work) was working with my computer. (use) I was using drawing software and suddenly the program (shut down)
block) has blocked.
4. Orianne (arrive) arrived a little after 8 a.m. We (wait) had been waiting for him for an hour.
5. The students (do) were doing group work and (speak) were talking very animatedly when the director of
the school (enter) entered the classroom.

ÿ Write the text using the verbs in the imperfect and past tense:
Friday April 15. Like every morning, I wake up at 7:00 a.m. with the radio. I eat breakfast listening to the news while my father reads the
newspaper. Then I shower, brush my teeth, get dressed and leave the house.
I wait a few minutes at the stop because the bus is late. The driver is friendly and explains that there are heavy traffic jams in the city
center. I'm worried because I have a math exam at 8:30 a.m. and I must not be late. On the bus, I see a young girl. She is pretty and
absent-minded. She wears a black dress, a red coat and black shoes. She looks out the window but suddenly turns to me. I'm embarrassed
and I'm blushing. She smiles. A few minutes later, she gets off the bus. I still have three more stops before school and I can't be late. I
hesitate to go down and the doors close.

Friday April 15. Like every morning, I woke up at 7:00 a.m. to the radio. I ate breakfast listening to the news while my father read the
newspaper. Then I showered, brushed my teeth, got dressed and left the house. I waited at the stop for a few minutes because the bus
was late. The driver was friendly and explained that there were heavy traffic jams in the city center. I was worried/worried because I had a
math exam at 8:30 a.m. and I must not be late. On the bus, I saw a young girl. She was pretty and absent-minded. She wore a black dress,
a red coat and black shoes. She was looking out the window but suddenly turned towards me. I was embarrassed and blushed. She
smiled. A few minutes later, she got off the bus. I still had three more stops before school and I couldn't be late. I hesitated to get off and
the doors closed

are closed.

M.G.