Étirent

Étirent is a verb form in French, most commonly encountered as the third-person plural of the verb étirer, meaning to stretch or extend. In contemporary usage, étirent appears in the present indicative as ils étirent (they stretch). It can also appear in historical or literary texts as étirèrent, the third-person plural form in the passé simple (they stretched), which is less common in everyday speech.

The verb étirer is derived from the root étir- and its infinitive form étirer. The ending -ent marks the third-person plural in the present tense, while the passé simple ending -èrent distinguishes étirèrent in past narrative. The word étirent is therefore often found in contexts describing physical stretching, elongation of objects, or metaphorical extension, depending on the subject.

In usage, present-tense étirent is common in descriptive prose or dialogue: Ils étirent les bras pour se réveiller. The passé simple étirèrent appears primarily in literary or historical works, where a narrator recounts actions completed in the past: Ils étirèrent les cordes et les préparèrent pour le test.

Related terms include étire (present-tense stem form in other persons), étirage (rarely used), and the noun étirement, which denotes the action or result of stretching. Étirement is also used in technical or athletic contexts to describe the process of elongation. Étirent, as a form, thus sits at the intersection of everyday description and literary narration within the broader family of étirer.