We’ve already seen one way to talk about the past in French. This is called the passé compose tense.
J’ai acheté une maison.
I bought a house.
Tu as acheté une voiture.
You bought a car.
Elle a acheté un appartement.
She bought an apartment.
But if you want to describe something you used to do in the past or to express how something used to be, you'll use a form of verbs endings called imparfait.
Let’s start by looking at je, tu, and il/elle.
Quand j’étais à l’université, j'étudiais le français.
When I was in college, I studied French.
Quand tu étais étudiant, tu habitais à Paris.
When you were a student, you were living in Paris.
Quand il était jeune, il aimait étudier.
When he was young, he loved studying.
You already know how to use c’est to talk about how things are right now. Use c’était to talk about how things were in the past!
C’était génial !
It was great!
C’était la belle vie.
It was the good life.
C’était différent.
It was different.
In French, se souvenir is always followed by de.
Nous nous souvenons de notre grand‑père.
We remember our grandfather.
Tu te souviens de tout.
You remember everything.
Elle se souvient des vacances en Espagne.
She remembers the vacation to Spain.