Résisté

Résisté is the past participle of the French verb résister, meaning “resisted.” It is used to form compound tenses such as the passé composé, plus-que-parfait, and other tenses with the auxiliary avoir. For example: j’ai résisté, il a résisté, nous avons résisté.

Etymology and cognates: Résister derives from Latin resistere, meaning to stand back, oppose, or endure. The participle résistré shares the same root and is used across various tenses with avoir as the auxiliary.

Usage notes: In standard French, past participles formed with avoir typically do not agree with the subject. They may agree with a preceding direct object, but with résister’s common construction “résister à quelque chose,” there is no direct object before the participle that would trigger agreement. Thus, masculine and feminine forms for basic passé composé are both résisté in most ordinary sentences, though grammatical agreement rules apply in unusual structures where a direct object precedes the participle.

As an adjective, résistant or résisté can be encountered in specialized or literary contexts to convey “having resisted” in a descriptive sense, but this usage is less common and often replaced by phrases such as “qui a résisté.”

Typical contexts include historical or political language (resistance movements), military reports, and general prose describing endurance or opposition to pressure, disease, or attack. Examples: “Les civils ont résisté aux conditions difficiles,” “Il a résisté à la maladie.”

See also: résister, passé composé, accord du participe passé, résistance.