How do I conjugate the imperfect tense in French and when do I use it?

The imperfect tense in French describes an action that took place in the past. It is an action with no specified start or end points (an unspecified duration). It could be used for descriptions in the past, continuous states of being, or for repeated actions. It may also be used in sentences using a 'si' clause and the conditional present. The conjugation of the imperfect tense is relatively easy as there is only one irregular verb: être (to be). All the other verbs follow the regular construction. The 'stem' of the verb comes form the nous form of the present conjugation. The stem is what shows you which verb you're using. To find the stem, find the nous form of the present indicative, then remove the '-ons' from the end. Take the verbs parler (to talk, to speak) and finir (to finish) as examples.parler → nous parlons (present indicative) → parl- (stem) finir → nous finissons → finiss-So, the stem for the verb parler is parl- and that of finir is finiss-. The only exception to this is the verb être, who's stem is ét-. Be careful of verbs that are irregular in the present tense; the stem is going to reflect this irregularity (e.g. nous avons → av-). The verb endings are always regular and are as follows:je → -ais tu → -ais il / elle / on → -ait nous → -ions vous → -iez ils → -aient. Therefore, when using the imperfect tense, the translation of "we spoke" would be nous parlions, and that of "I was finishing" is "je finissais".