Morgan

[round canopy]

Please be patient

Our volunteers look into many questions every day; sometimes it takes them a little while to answer.

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Make it descriptive, including relevant context, but also to the point. This way you improve your chances of getting a more relevant and specific answer.

[minor meteor]

the imparfait tense

[tidal thorn]

You can simply use imperfect to describe past habits/recurring actions.
You can also use the construction "avoir l'habitude de" to indicate an habit as such. Although it would sound off in that specific case.

[red nest]

merci !

[dry mason]

Et je viens de (?)

[red nest]

is that because avoir l'habitude implies that it is something you're doing on purpose?

[tidal thorn]

"venir de" is used to indicate events that just happened. Basically translates to "just" in English
I just came back <=> je viens de rentrer

[tidal thorn]

yeah, a conscious action at least

[red nest]

so if I say something like "je disais que je suis forte" that implies that I don't say that anymore?

or "j'allais à paris" that I don't go there anymore

[tidal thorn]

Or that context changed. Maybe you're saying that in relation to a specific context that's no longer in action, so it makes sense to use past tense
"je disais que j'étais forte" *

[red nest]

ah yeah, i think i constructed a sentence that didn't really serve what i was asking, what about "je disais 'je suis forte'"

cuz if i said, 'I used to say "i am strong"' in English that means 100% that i don't say that anymore

would i need to provide more context in French to say that i don't ever say that now

[tidal thorn]

it wouldn't be clear that this isn't the case anymore, except with explicit context

one of the differences is that you can say "I used to" in English without giving a proper setting for when you did use to say that, because you're implying it was the case in the past but not now.
In French, imperfect doesn't make this insinuation. Rather, you would need to give context for when the imperfect action was taking place. This is why the action can still be true at the current time, if context changed.

hum, this might be not be a very accurate explanation

do you have a concrete example we can work on maybe?

[red nest]

Is "I used to mispronounce that" a good concrete example? Or do you mean I should add more context? The context is that I'm explaining the pronounciation of nasal vowels to someone and im describing how I used to say them and I'm about to contrast it with how i say them now but I haven't yet

like I used to say them with a hard n

[tidal thorn]

yeah, it would be better to add even a slight time indicator, like "avant, je le prononçais mal". Context might be as simple as that, and it makes it clear you're good now

[idle veldt]

The difference is that this is direct speech (you are repeating what you had said) and before it was indirect speech (you're relating the words to the condition now).

« Je disais, "Je suis forte". »
'I used to say, "I am strong".'
vs
« Je disais que j'étais forte. »
'I used to say that I was wrong.'

You can tell it's direct/indirect here by the presence of the conjunction « que (that) » which marks the start of a subordinate clause. It's a bit more invisible in English since you can drop that conjunction but in French it has to be explicit.

[red nest]

Ah I see, and by adding avant, you've strongly implied that you don't do it that way anymore. But you could probably still follow that up with "maintenant, je les prononce encore mal" for humorous effect? (As u can do in English with 'used to')

[tidal thorn]

Yes, you can. Works the same way.
"c'est toujours le cas" would be a more natural alternative as well