Inhalé

Inhalé is the French past participle of the verb inhaler, meaning "to breathe in" or "to inhale." It is used both in compound tenses (with the auxiliary avoir, e.g., "J'ai inhalé de la fumée") and adjectivally to describe something that has been inhaled or was breathed in (e.g., "air inhalé"). As an adjective it agrees in gender and number with the noun it modifies: inhalé (masculine singular), inhalée (feminine singular), inhalés, inhalées.

The term appears frequently in medical, environmental and everyday contexts. In medicine it can describe substances absorbed by the respiratory tract (for example, "médicaments inhalés") or refer to events such as accidental inhalation of foreign bodies. In public-health discussions it is used when assessing exposure to pollutants, smoke or aerosols. Related French nouns and verbs include inhalation (the act or process), inhalateur (an inhaler device) and inhaler (the verb).

Etymologically, inhaler derives from Latin inhalare, from in- (into) + halare (to breathe), and is cognate with English inhale. Pronunciation in French is commonly approximated in English as "een-ah-lay" or "in-ah-lay." Usage follows standard French agreement rules for past participles formed with avoir: no agreement unless a preceding direct object necessitates it; when used purely as an adjective, normal gender-number agreement applies.