Sentence practice

Je dormais quand tu as appelé.

/ʒə dɔʁ.mɛ kɑ̃ ty a(z) a.ple/

I was asleep when you called.

A2neutral

The sentence, word by word

PatternSUBJ + VERB(imparfait) + quand + SUBJ + VERB(passé composé)

JeIsubject
dormaiswas sleepingverb
quandwhensubordinating conjunction
tuyousubject
as appeléone unitcalledverb

The verb — where it comes from

dormais←dormirGroup 3 · irregular
dormir → dorm + ais → dormais
Mood
indicative
Tense
past continuous (imparfait)
Person
first person singular (je)
With
Je
The stem comes from the present nous form (nous parl-ons → parl-) and the endings are the same for every verb: ais · ais · ait · ions · iez · aient. The only exception is être: ét-.
Full conjugation of «dormir»
as appelé←appelerGroup 1 · -er verbs
appeler → appel + é → appelé
Mood
indicative
Tense
past (passé composé)
Person
second person singular (tu)
Auxiliary
avoir
With
tu
Full conjugation of «appeler»

Notes on this sentence

dormaisEnglish already makes this split: I was sleeping (background) when you called (event). was -ing → imparfait: je dormais.
as appeléThe single event that cut in → passé composé: tu as appelé.

The rules in this sentence

Tap any of them to open its full explanation right here.