The Imparfait: Formation & Basic Uses
Imparfait: बनावट और बुनियादी इस्तेमाल
Where the passé composé marks a completed event, the imparfait paints the background — ongoing action, habits, description. Hindi already has a dedicated verb form for exactly this idea, बोलता था, so marking this with its own conjugation isn't a new habit at all — you're just learning new endings for something Hindi's grammar already sets aside as its own category.
Grammar Comparison
व्याकरण तुलना
Formation ≈ Hindi's own habitual-past (verb-stem + था/थी)
nous parlons → je parlais, tu parlais, il/elle parlait, nous parlions, vous parliez, ils/elles parlaient
मैं बोलता था, तुम बोलते थे, वह बोलता था, हम बोलते थे, आप बोलते थे, वे बोलते थे
Take the nous-form of the present tense, drop -ons, and add the imparfait endings -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient. This works for every verb except être, whose imparfait stem is the irregular ét- (j'étais, tu étais, il était...). Hindi builds its own habitual/ongoing past in a structurally similar two-part way: the verb's habitual stem (बोलता, itself agreeing with the subject's gender/number) plus था/थी/थे (a form of होना, 'to be', agreeing with the subject too) — बोलता था literally 'speaking was'. Both languages mark this meaning with a dedicated, learnable pattern rather than a borrowed auxiliary phrase; French just spreads the agreement across a single verb ending, while Hindi splits it across two separate words.
What the imparfait is for — Hindi already marks this with its own tense
Quand j'étais petit, je jouais au foot tous les jours. (When I was little, I used to play football every day.)
जब मैं छोटा था, तो मैं रोज़ फ़ुटबॉल खेलता था।
Use the imparfait for background description, ongoing states, and habitual/repeated actions in the past — the 'used to' or 'was doing' sense. Hindi marks this exact same meaning with its own dedicated past-habitual conjugation (खेलता था), not a helper phrase bolted onto the plain past — so a Hindi speaker already has an instinct for a single, grammatically marked 'background past' tense; French's imparfait slots into that same mental category. A full passé composé vs. imparfait contrast — for narrating a story where both tenses interact — gets its own dedicated lesson later at B1.
Interrupted action: imparfait + passé composé together
Je regardais la télé quand tu as appelé. (I was watching TV when you called.)
मैं टीवी देख रहा था कि तुमने फ़ोन किया।
A very common pattern pairs the two tenses in one sentence: the imparfait sets the ongoing scene (regardais, 'was watching'), and the passé composé marks the single event that interrupts it (as appelé, 'called'). Hindi reaches for a slightly different pairing here — the ongoing background action often takes the continuous रहा था ('was doing') rather than the habitual बोलता था — while the interrupting event takes the simple past (फ़ोन किया). Watch for this one distinction: Hindi's habitual था-form (used for repeated/background states) and its continuous रहा था-form (used for one specific ongoing action interrupted by another) both translate as French's imparfait, even though Hindi itself treats them as two different constructions.
Vocabulary
शब्दावली
- Hindi
- मैं बोलता/बोलती था/थीmaiñ boltā/boltī thā/thī
- English
- I was speaking / used to speak
- Hindi
- तुम बोलते/बोलती थे/थींtum bolte/boltī the/thīñ
- English
- you were speaking (informal)
- Hindi
- वह बोलता/बोलती था/थीvah boltā/boltī thā/thī
- English
- he/she was speaking
- Hindi
- हम बोलते थेham bolte the
- English
- we were speaking
- Hindi
- आप बोलते थेāp bolte the
- English
- you were speaking (formal/plural)
- Hindi
- वे बोलते थेve bolte the
- English
- they were speaking
- Hindi
- मैं था/थीmaiñ thā/thī
- English
- I was
- Hindi
- मेरे पास था/थीmere pās thā/thī
- English
- I had / used to have
- Hindi
- मौसम अच्छा थाmausam acchā thā
- English
- the weather was nice
- Hindi
- था / थेthā / the
- English
- there was / there were