French Grammar – I was lying down all morning 🇫🇷

étais

INDICATIF IMPARFAIT
j’ étais
tu étais
il/elle était
nous. étions
Vous étiez
ils/elles étaient

6 months ago

J’____ allongé toute la matinée

In the sentence “J’____ allongé toute la matinée,” the correct word to fill in the blank is “étais,” which translates to “I was lying down all morning.” The verb “étais” is the first person singular imperfect tense of the verb “être” (to be). The use of the imperfect tense “étais” is required because the sentence describes a continuous action or state of being in the past.

In French, when expressing what you were doing in the past over a period of time (without a specific start or end), you use the imperfect tense (l’imparfait). The imperfect tense is used to talk about ongoing or habitual past actions, situations, or conditions.

Also, when combined with the past participle “allongé,” we are seeing an example of a compound tense in French. In this case, “allongé” functions as the past participle of “s’allonger” (to lie down), which is used with the auxiliary verb “être” to form the past tense known as “le passé composé” or the compound past.

However, since we are describing an action that was ongoing in the past and not a completed action (which would typically use “le passé composé”), we need to use “l’imparfait.”

Hence, “J’étais allongé toute la matinée” correctly conveys, “I was lying down all morning.”

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