évitées

Évitées is the feminine plural past participle form of the French verb éviter, meaning to avoid or to prevent. The full set of participle forms for éviter is évité (masculine singular), évitée (feminine singular), évités (masculine plural), and évitées (feminine plural). In practice, évitées is used when the past action was performed and the direct object that it refers to is feminine and plural.

In usage, évitées appears most often in passé composé and other compound tenses with the auxiliary avoir, where it agrees with a preceding feminine plural direct object. For example: Les erreurs qu’elles ont évitées. Here, the feminine plural noun erreurs precedes the verb and the participle takes the -ées ending. If the feminine plural object does not precede the verb, the participle remains in its base form without the extra -e: Elles ont évité certaines erreurs (no agreement before the verb in this arrangement is visible until the relative clause is considered). Evitées can also function as an adjective modifying a feminine plural noun, as in des mesures évitées (measures that were avoided).

Etymology traces évitées to the verb éviter, from Latin evitare, through Old French. The form is primarily encountered in written and formal registers, especially in contexts describing things that have been avoided or prevented.

See also: éviter, passé composé, French past participle agreement, gender and number agreement in compound tenses.