miketuan

[grizzled trail]

Please be patient

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

Pro tip: you can rename the thread title with `.tr <thread name>`

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.

[warm pulsar]

It's a fairly literary use of l'imparfait, where the passé simple or composé would usually be used. However, because the marker of time makes the duration of the action clear, l'imparfait creates an effect of continuity/suspense. Similar to most of the cases you'd use imparfait, it involves an action which is en train de se dérouler, but its a pretty specific case because it isn't accompanied by another temps (pour concordance) and isn't exactly describing context

Definitely one of the weird ones that you kind of want to know about in case you run into it, but probably will never use yourself

[smoky gazelle]

Now I understand all this, that's quite interesting