The French imperfect is very easy to conjugate. With a single exception, every single French verb is conjugated as follows:
- Start with the verb’s nous form of the present tense
- Drop –ons
- Add the imperfect ending.
The only verb that doesn’t—can’t—follow this pattern is être, because its nous form is sommes, so there’s no –ons to drop. Instead, it uses ét– as its imperfect stem.
Par exemple…
Here are the imperfect conjugations for the regular -er verb donner (to give), the regular -ir verb choisir (to choose), the stem-changing verb lever (to lift), and the irregular verbs aller (to go) and être (to be).
| Pronoun | Ending |
| je / j’ | -ais |
| tu | -ais |
| il | -ait |
| nous | -ions |
| vous | -iez |
| ils | -aient |
| donner > donn- | choisir > choisiss- | lever > lev- | aller > all- | être > ét- |
| donnais | choisissais | levais | allais | étais |
| donnais | choisissais | levais | allais | étais |
| donnait | choisissait | levait | allait | était |
| donnions | choisissions | levions | allions | étions |
| donniez | choisissiez | leviez | alliez | étiez |
| donnaient | choisissaient | levaient | allaient | étaient |
French imperfect endings are identical to conditional endings.