How do you say "I was..." or "it was..." in French?

Question

I want to say "I was in a group with...so and so" and "the garden was very cool." do i use étais/était or "il a été"?
ps and can someone explain to me what the imparfait is in french?

Answer 1

I was in a group with = j'étais dans un groupe avec

the garden was very cool= Le jardin était très joli
i understood from here that u meant by cool beautiful, now if u meant original it would be the same jardin original (same word in french)
imparfait is a progressive tense in the past, it means the action took time to be done or was taking place when an abrupt - short action took place
it is like i was dancing when jack came in, here the first verb is in a progressive tense so u use imparfait in french "dansais" while the secont is in simple past so u use passé composé in french "est entré"
so étais/était= imparfait: progressive past
a été= passé composé: simple past tense

Answer 2

était is generally used for was in most cases when you are describing or giving background. This is the general use of the imperfect. (imparfait) With most verbs it can be expressed as was verbing or used to verb. je jouais ( was playing or I used to play)

the passé composé is generally used for events that happened. I don't read 'a été' very often, and, as a learner, I would stick to the imparfait forms to express was/were

The distinction between the imparfait and the passé composé is quite difficult for an English speaker to grasp, and takes quite a while to use correctly.

Answer 3

I was in a group with = j'étais dans un groupe avec

the garden was very cool: Le jardin était très reposant

Imparfait = preterit

Answer 4

J'étais i was
tu étais u were
il/elle était he/she/it was
nous étions we were
vous étiez you plural/you polite were
ils/elles étaient they were
they are the stem endings
je jouais = I played/was playing/used to play etc. but not i have played (u would use parfait for that), it is used in the past tense for non-recent actions. i.e
Quand ma grand-mere etait jeune, il n'y avait pas d'electricite = When my grandmother was young, there wasn't any electricity

If you want more examples or activities try this
http://www.languagesonline.org.uk/
go francais, then scroll down to the past tenses

Answer 5

"Je faisais part d'un group avec...tel et tel"
"Le jardin e'tait tre`s calme"
ETAIT=was. A ETE=has been.
Imparfait=a past tense where the action was continuous-in the past-. Je mangeais=I was eating--for long--in the past.i was eating when he broke in! Je mangeais quand il y est entre'.

Ciao.......John-John.

Answer 6

it's actually je suis.


je suis = to be

but when you're talking about past tense you says "je suis" with whatever else

I was talking "je suis parle"