imperfect tense for french?
825907
I know what you mean as this is really confusing! :)\nThe explanation that finally helped me was the following:\n\nImagine a theatre play. There is the stage with all the things on it and the time the play is set in and so on. If you were to describe all that, you would do it in IMPARFAIT ("il était"). For example "It was in Paris on a dark November night; Isabelle was sitting alone in her room reading a book"... and any description of the room like "there was a huge cupboard yet dresses were lying all over the floor" or whatever... "Her father wanted her to marry Henri but she loved Pierre..." and so on and so on... Do you get it? Any kind of description of the setting, of the whole situation. Nothing has actually happened yet in the play, you have just been made familiar with all the "background". Yes? That's all in IMPARFAIT.\n\nThen the action starts. Suddenly, Babette runs into the room and shouts "Please help me quick!" Even if she came slowly into the room, or even if nothing more happened than that Isabelle turned the page of her book, when telling your friends about the play the next day, you would use PASSE COMPOSE (like "ést rentrée") for these things because they are part of the action of the story, they are what is happening on stage. \n\nThe situation (background, stage, setting) is what you convey with IMPARFAIT.\nAction, that's the idea you want to convey with PASSE COMPOSE.\n\nSo in your example now, "il était 7 heures et demie" describes the situation, that which was already given. "elle ést rentrée" is the action, it's what has actually happened.\nIf you imagine it in the theatre play, there would be a clock with that time of 7:30 hanging on the wall in the background. Sitting in the audience you see that it's 7:30 and wait for something to happen. And happen it does: she returns home.\n\nDoes it make sense? I hope so. Because it really helped me to forget about all the explanations and just always differentiate between stage and action.\n\nThe explanations (like the silly thing about the specific time) don't work because it always depends on what you would like to convey. You might like to convey that she was on her way home as the clock struck 7:30. Then it would be the other way round: She was on her way home would be the "stage" (the situation as it is when the action sets in) and the fact that the clock struck 7:30 would be the action because you want to convey this as what is happening. Hence, "she was on her way home" would be in IMPARFAIT and "when the clock struck 7:30" would be in PASSE COMPOSE. Just because as a narrator you see that as the action. It depends on your story, really. So it's futile to think in terms of all these explanations. I find that just getting a feel for it helped me out of the confusion. \nTo decide which form of past tense to use in each case, I just kept asking myself:\n\nIs this a description of the SITUATION here (->imparfait), \nor is it the ACTION (->passé composé) ?\n\nHope I have helped you rather than confused you more. Maybe try giving it some time to sink in, because I'm positive you can develop a gut feeling for it.
1074785
I'm assuming you're talking about French.  I'll give you the present tense conjugations.\n\nJe nage.\nTu nages.\nIl/Elle nage.\nNous nageons.\nVous nagez.\nIls nagent.
950243
je comprend pas la question
493595
Um.. the tenses are kinda of.. i think if you sed \nJuntos cocinamos la cena, vamos de compras y al cine.. that might b better..
448283
No, "je te..." doesn't work.\n\n"Tu me manques" is the most usual sentence in  this context.
163694
The way ,my FRENCH TEACHERS, MOSTLY, FRENCH NATIONALS/BELGIANS,was by first teaching, some IRREGULAR VERBS, then giving us for loud reading,a short lesson, say, 10 to 12 lines,containing, the verb's  Application, from the Present Continuous.....to the past-perfect.\nThey would read to us, make us read, & en-act plays, like 'JEAN D' ARK'.Spoke to us in French, accepted answers, in French, prompted us when we went wrong. I AM GRATEFUL TO THEM TODAY...COZ, I TEACH FRENCH, AS A VISITING FACULTY MEMBER.
784340
On va sûrement se prendre une casquette !!!\n.
530448
oui c'est vrai ..\n\nthats right ..good luck
986572
verbe dans ta question?
763334
Ca me parait encore un peu prématuré comme question.\nEn effet les cinq derniers du classement se relayent à tour de role dans la bas du tableau.\nComme dirait un chanteur que j'aime bien "c'est pas fini tant que c'est pas fini" (traduction).\nRepose ta question vers le mois de mars, je pense que ce se sera decanté un peu d'ici-là !!
892019
je vois pas ou est le probleme a partir du moment ou il y a des phases eliminatoires
855366
essai encore !!\nun peu d'orthographe et de syntaxe et c'est ok
1049469
bonjour , c'est une très bonne idée. Le français est une belle langue bien que sa grammaire soit complexe. Si tu veux te familiariser avec le français, écoutes des bons chanteurs comme Charles Trénet, Jacques Brel, Léo Ferré. Il faut surtout bien articuler. Bon courage!!
709560
Et en français, ça veut dire quoi?
984319
Pas la moindre info à ce sujet.\n\nA+
592479
Langugages in which  tense is not expressed anywhere in the verb or any auxiliaries -- mostly in "analytic" (also called "isolating") languages which use a particle of adverb of time (when needed), e.g., by adding "yesterday" or "tomorrow".\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_tense\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isolating_language\n\nMost prominent exanple: Chinese\nhttp://www.chinese-outpost.com/language/grammar/verbal-aspect-expressing-tense-in-mandarin-grammar.asp\n\nOther examples: Thai,  Vietnamese\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_language#Verbs\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_language#Tense
1039719
SELON:\n*Rapidité\nAgilité\néxperience\nleur prestation durant toute l année\nL anglais.......