agissait

Agissait is the third-person singular form of the verb agir in the imperfect indicative in French. It means that someone was acting or behaved in a certain way in the past, with nuance of duration, habit, or background rather than a completed action. It can express ongoing actions, repeated habits, or describing a past situation.

Conjugation and usage notes: agir is an irregular -ir verb, and in the imperfect the stem is agi- with endings -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient. Therefore, the full imperfect forms are: j’agissais, tu agissais, il agissait, nous agissions, vous agissiez, ils agissaient. The form agissait is specifically third-person singular, used for il/elle/on.

In comparison with other past tenses, agissait often contrasts with passé composé forms such as il a agi, which denotes a completed action. For example, il agissait differently from the way he acted in a single decisive moment. The imperfect is commonly used to set a scene, describe a character’s behavior over time, or indicate a habitual action in the past.

Etymology and related forms: agir derives from the Latin agere, with cognates in other Romance languages (for example, Italian agiva, Spanish actuaba). Related nouns include action and actor, while related verbs cover the broader sense of performing, behaving, or operating.

See also: agir, imparfait, passé composé, and related conjugation patterns for -ir verbs.