Lesson 38: Introducing the Imperfect Subjunctive

As you learned earlier, the subjunctive mood is used in dependent clauses to express wishes, doubts, emotions, necessity, and other ideas that are not simply presented as facts.

You've seen this with the present subjunctive:

In literary and historical writing, when the main clause is set in the past, French may instead use the imperfect subjunctive:

The same kinds of expressions trigger the subjunctive; the imperfect subjunctive simply places that dependent clause within literary past narration. In modern spoken French, the present or past subjunctive is normally used instead.

The imperfect subjunctive is built from a form you already know: the il/elle/on form of the passé simple. The only new ingredient is the circumflex—the little "hat" accent you've seen in forms like parlâmes (â, î, û). Here's how we use that form to build it:

The same set of endings applies to every verb:

For the il/elle/on form, the vowel takes a circumflex:

• parla → parlât
• finit → finît
• vendit → vendît

Here are the full conjugations for parler, finir, and vendre:

Because this method starts from the passé simple form, any spelling changes are already built into the stem. For example:

• commencer → il commença → que je commençasse
• manger → il mangea → que je mangeasse

Modern French usually keeps the present or past subjunctive in these situations. The imperfect subjunctive is primarily something you need to recognize when reading literary French.