| Do you remember how the character said, |
| “He loved running in the garden behind the house.” |
| Il adorait courir dans le jardin derrière la maison. |
| 1 |
| Il adorait courir dans le jardin derrière la maison. |
| This sentence follows the pattern here |
| [Subject] + [Verb in Imperfect] + [Complement] |
| This pattern helps us describe what someone was like or used to do in the past. |
| Here's how the line from the dialogue uses the pattern. |
| Il adorait courir dans le jardin derrière la maison. |
| Il is the subject pronoun, "he." |
| Adorait is the imperfect of adorer, meaning "loved." |
| Courir is the infinitive, "to run." |
| So: Il adorait courir means "He loved running." |
| Then: |
| Dans le jardin derrière la maison means "in the garden behind the house." |
| Altogether: Il adorait courir dans le jardin derrière la maison. |
| Now let's also take a quick look at two more imperfect verbs used in the dialogue: |
| Il avait cinq ans. |
| "He was five years old." |
| In this sentence: |
| Il, "he," the subject pronoun, |
| followed by |
| avait, "had," the imperfect of avoir, used to express age in the past. |
| next |
| cinq ans, " five years." |
| Il était si mignon. |
| "He was so cute." |
| In this sentence: |
| Il, "he," the subject pronoun, |
| followed by |
| était, "was," the imperfect of être, |
| next |
| si, "so," an intensifier, |
| followed by |
| mignon, "cute." |
| Before we continue, let's look at how to form the imperfect with three important verb types: |
| Avoir (to have) |
| j'avais, tu avais, il/elle/on avait, nous avions, vous aviez, ils/elles avaient |
| Être (to be) |
| j'étais, tu étais, il/elle/on était, nous étions, vous étiez, ils/elles étaient |
| Regular -er verbs (like adorer, meaning "to love") |
| j'adorais, tu adorais, il/elle/on adorait, nous adorions, vous adoriez, ils/elles adoraient |
| In French, we use l’imparfait or imperfect tense to describe: |
| What someone or something was like in the past |
| Repeated or habitual past actions |
| Background details in a story |
| This is different from le passé composé, which is used for completed actions. |
| In our dialogue, we used était, avait, adorait, débordait, posait — all in the imperfect — to describe Théodore's personality and typical behavior as a child. |
| Now let's look at some speaking examples. |
| Quand j'étais petit, j'avais un chien. |
| "When I was little, I had a dog." |
| Can you see how the pattern applies here? |
| Let's break it down: |
| Quand j'étais petit means "when I was little." J'étais is the imperfect of être for "I was." |
| J'avais un chien means "I had a dog." J'avais is the imperfect of avoir for "I had." |
| All together: Quand j'étais petit, j'avais un chien means "When I was little, I had a dog." |
| Quand j'étais petit, j'avais un chien. |
| Il adorait les bonbons. |
| "He loved candy." |
| Il adorait les bonbons. |
| "He loved candy." |
| Elle avait une poupée préférée. |
| "She had a favorite doll." |
| Elle avait une poupée préférée. |
| "She had a favorite doll." |
| Nous étions très contents. |
| "We were very happy." |
| Nous étions très contents. |
| "We were very happy." |
| Tu posais toujours des questions. |
| "You always asked questions." |
| Tu posais toujours des questions. |
| "You always asked questions." |
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