Nourrissait

Nourrissait is a conjugated form of the French verb nourrir, meaning to feed or nourish. It is the imperfect (imparfait) third-person singular form: il nourrissait, and translates to “he was feeding” or “he used to feed” in English. The imperfect is used to describe ongoing actions in the past, habitual past actions, or the background in narrative.

Grammatical notes: nourrir is an -ir verb with regular imperfect endings. The stem nourriss- takes the endings -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient. Thus the imperfect forms include je nourrissais, tu nourrissais, il nourrissait, nous nourrissions, vous nourrissiez, ils nourrissaient. The verb’s present participle is nourrissant, and the past participle is nourri. The noun nourri, in turn, is used in phrases related to nourishment in some constructions, while the related noun nourrissement refers to the act or process of feeding.

Usage and examples: In everyday French, nourrissait can describe a character’s ongoing action in a past scene, or a habitual feeding action. Examples include: Il nourrissait les enfants au biberon. (He was feeding the children with the bottle.) Dans le roman, il nourrissait son espoir de jours meilleurs. (In the novel, he nourished his hope for better days.) These usages help set the temporal and descriptive context in past narratives.

Etymology and scope: Nourriss- derives from Old French nourrir, from Latin nutrire, related to nourishment. Nourrissait is strictly a grammatical form and not a standalone lexical item beyond its role in conjugation.