In french, verb "ranger" and "nager" in imparfait...?

Question

so..
je rangeais
tu rangeais
il/elle/on rangeait
nous rangeons
vous rangeaiz
ils/elles rangeaient

but in a regular form, for example taquiner
je taquinais
tu taquinais
elle/il/on taquinait...
.

I thought it was je rangais, tu rangais, without the e..
and nager follows the same pattern right? why is this?
are there any other verbs that follow this pattern?

Answer 1

It's necessary to add the "e" after the "g" to keep the "g" soft. WIthout the "e" it would be pronounced like a hard "g" sound rather than a soft "zh" sound. So the "e" is added purely for pronunciation. Same thing with other verbs that have a "g" just before the ending: nager, voyager, etc...

And incidentally, the nous and vous forms should be "nagions" and "nagiez"; they follow the typical imperfect conjugations and don't require an additional "e" because "g" is already soft before the letter "i".

You see something similar with verbs that end in a soft "c" before the endings, like commencer: you have to add a cédille in the je, tu, il/elle, and ils/elles forms to keep the "c" soft, as follows:

je commençais
tu commençais
il commençait
nous commencions
vous commenciez
ils commençaient

Answer 2

the verbs ending in "ger" keep the "e" after the g before the vowels "a" and "o". This is to maintain the pronounciation. These verbs however, are regular verbs in every other aspect. You had errors with the verb "ranger". Should be "nous rangions + vous rangiez". These 2 forms of the imparfait do not keep the "e" because they are not followed by either the vowel "a" or "o". Other verbs who follow this rule are manger, allonger, amenager, bouger, corriger, decourager, degager, prolonger, etc. etc. There are too many to list all of them. Bon Courage!

Answer 3

First, please allow me to correct the spelling for the second person plural for 'ranger' in the imparfait: vous rangiez.

The 'e' in 'nageais', for instance, is only to keep the sound (j). If it is written 'je nagais' it would be pronounced like a g like in good. You introduce the letter 'e' in verbs that have the letter G pronounced J in front of the vowels (a, o, i) so as to keep the sound J.

Ex: Nous mangeons (present), ils nageaient (imparfait).

Answer 4

I also found this rather confusing when I first started learning French. It seems there are more exeptions than rules in this language. But trust me, it gets easier with practice. Bon courage !