GCSE-ready- Home
- Lessons
- GCSE & IGCSE French
- Holiday memories: imperfect or perfect?
Holiday memories: imperfect or perfect?
🎬 The doodle video for this lesson is coming soon. Subscribe on YouTube to see it first.
Good holiday stories mix two past tenses: the imperfect for the background and the perfect for the events.
All the imperfect endings
Which past tense?
Imperfect: background, description, weather, repeated actions. Il faisait chaud. Tous les jours, nous allions à la plage.
Perfect: one completed event. Un jour, nous avons visité un château.
Together: Il pleuvait quand nous sommes partis. = It was raining when we left.
Perfect: one completed event. Un jour, nous avons visité un château.
Together: Il pleuvait quand nous sommes partis. = It was raining when we left.
Signal words
Imperfect: tous les jours (every day), d'habitude (usually), souvent (often), quand j'étais petit(e).
Perfect: un jour (one day), ensuite (then), hier (yesterday), le premier jour (on the first day).
Perfect: un jour (one day), ensuite (then), hier (yesterday), le premier jour (on the first day).
Translate: It was hot and we visited a castle.
- It was hot: weather, so imperfect: il faisait chaud.
- We visited: one event, so perfect: nous avons visité.
- A castle: un château.
Answer: Il faisait chaud et nous avons visité un château.
Imperfect endings: -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient. Imperfect for background and habits; perfect for single completed events.
The interactive lesson includes the diagrams for this topic.
Check you have got it
Answer 6 quick questions with instant marking. If you get one wrong, GCSE-ready shows you why and gives you another go. It is free, and you do not need an account.