Répondaient

Répondaient is a French verb form, the imperfect indicative of the verb répondre. It translates to “they were answering” or “they used to answer,” indicating a past ongoing or habitual action in the third person plural.

Formation and spelling notes: In French, the imperfect endings are -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient. For -re verbs like répondre, the stem used for the imperfect is derived from the nous present form minus -ons. Thus the form corresponding to ils is répondaient. The spelling preserves a d before the -aient, a result of regular phonetic evolution in the verb’s stem, yielding répondaient.

Etymology: The French verb répondre comes from Latin respondere, meaning to answer. It entered Old French as respondre and developed through standard conjugation patterns, including the imperfect form répondaient.

Usage: Répondaient appears in narrative or descriptive past tense to describe what a group was doing or what they used to do regularly in the past. It contrasts with passes composé like ils ont répondu, which emphasizes a completed action. It can appear in reported speech or in descriptive passages to set scene or indicate habitual behavior.

Examples:

- Ils répondaient toujours avec courtoisie, même lorsque la question était provocatrice.

- Quand on les interrogeait, ils répondaient qu’ils attendraient des instructions.

See also: French imperfect tense (imparfait), conjugation of répondre, usage of the imperfect in narrative and reported speech.