Instruisaient

Instruisaient is the imperfect (imparfait) tense form of the French verb instruire, used with the third-person plural subject ils or elles. It translates into English as “they were instructing” or “they instructed,” emphasizing ongoing or habitual past action.

Etymology and senses: instruire comes from Old French instruire, itself from Latin instruere, meaning to build, prepare, teach, or inform. The primary sense in modern French is to educate or provide instruction, but instruire also has a legal or administrative sense: to conduct an investigation or to prepare a case (as in instruire une affaire). The imperfect form instruisaient reflects a continued or repeated action in the past.

Usage: In contemporary speech, instruire is more formal or literary when referring to teaching, with common substitutes such as enseigner or éduquer in everyday language. The sense of investigating a case is common in legal or bureaucratic contexts. In the imperfect, instruisaient often appears in narrative descriptions of past events or in reports recounting how a group carried out instructional or investigative activities over time.

Examples: Ils instruisaient les élèves sur les mathématiques et les sciences. This means they were instructing the students in mathematics and science. Dans le cadre d'une enquête, ils instruisaient l'affaire, rassemblant des preuves. This illustrates the investigative sense, where they were conducting or preparing the inquiry.

See also: instruire, instruction (the noun form), instructionnelle, etymology tied to the root instruire. The form instruisaient is one of several imperfect conjugations that reflect the verb’s regular pattern in the imperfect for ils/elles.