Parcourent

Parcourent is the third-person plural present indicative form of the French verb parcourir. The verb means to travel through, traverse, or cover a distance, and it can also mean to move through a space, to survey, or to skim through a text. In everyday use, parcourent describes subjects actively moving across a place or landscape or completing a survey of an area.

Usage examples illustrate its versatility: Ils parcourent la campagne à vélo; Elles parcourent les rues du quartier en quête d’un café; Nous parcourons un itinéraire long et difficile. Figuratively, parcourir peut also mean to read through quickly, as in parcourir un livre, or to span in time, as in parcourir les siècles. The form parcourent is therefore common in narrative or descriptive passages involving movement, exploration, or thoroughness.

Etymology and grammar: parcourir derives from Latin percorrere, via Old French parcourir, and shares its meaning of running or moving through. In modern French, parcourir is an irregular -ir verb; its present tense forms are je parcours, tu parcours, il parcourt, nous parcourons, vous parcourez, ils parcourent. The third-person plural form parcourent remains in line with these endings.

Related forms include parcouru (past participle, used with être or avoir to form compound tenses) and parcourant (present participle). The noun parcours, derived from the same root, denotes a course, route, or itinerary. Together, these terms describe the broader semantic field of moving through space or time.