Couvrîtes

Couvrîtes is the second-person plural form of the French verb couvrir in the passé simple, used to indicate a completed action in the past in literary or formal writing. In modern usage, this tense is rare outside of written fiction and historical texts.

Origin and form: The verb couvrir comes from Latin cooperire, via Old French covrir and later forms of couvrir. In the passé simple, the second-person plural ending is -îtes, yielding couvrîtes. The form is written with the circumflex on the first i, and appears in contexts where the passé simple is appropriate.

Usage: The passé simple is primarily encountered in literature, chronicles, and formal narratives, and is seldom used in everyday spoken French, where the passé composé or imperfect is preferred. Example: « Vous couvrîtes le toit de tuiles. » This sentence means “You covered the roof with tiles.” In contemporary speech, one would typically say, “Vous avez couvert le toit de tuiles.”

See also: couvrir, passé simple, French verb conjugation.