Cessait

Cessait is the third-person singular imperfect form of the French verb cesser, meaning to stop or cease. It is a conjugated form rather than a standalone noun or term, and it appears in past narrative to indicate that ceasing was ongoing or habitual.

Etymology and meaning: cesser derives from Latin cessare, meaning to cease or rest. In French, the imperfect tense (comme “cessait”) describes actions or states in the past that were not completed at a specific moment, often conveying duration or repetition. When the subject is il, elle, or on, the form used is cessait.

Usage and grammar: The verb cesser is regular in its conjugation. In the imperfect tense, its endings are -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient. Therefore, il cessait means “he was ceasing” or “he used to cease,” and elle cessait means the same for a feminine subject. The form cessait is commonly seen in texts describing ongoing past cessation or a habit of stopping an action over a period.

Examples:

- La pluie cessait enfin. (The rain was finally stopping.)

- Il cessait de parler pendant la réunion. (He was ceasing to speak during the meeting.)

Differences from related forms: the passé composé uses a different construction with the auxiliary avoir and the past participle cessé, as in “la pluie a cessé.” The noun cessation shares the root but is a distinct word meaning a stopping or ending, not a verb form.

See also: cessation, cesser, imperfect tense, French grammar.