avaient

Avaient is the imperfect tense of the French verb avoir (to have) in the third-person plural form, used for ongoing or habitual past actions or states. It corresponds to ils avaient or elles avaient in English as "they had." The imperfect stem is av- and the endings are the standard imperfect endings -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient, so avait and avaient are formed from av- plus -ait and -aient respectively. Avaient is specifically the form used when the subject is ils or elles.

Usage and function: The imperfect describes background information in the past, such as ongoing conditions, repeated actions, or states of being. It is commonly used to set scenes, describe circumstances, or express habitual past actions, often in contrast to a completed action in the passé composé. Examples include: Ils avaient faim. (They were hungry / They had been hungry.) Quand il arriva, ils avaient déjà mangé. (When he arrived, they had already eaten.)

Relation to other tenses: Avaient can also serve as the auxiliary in a compound tense when forming the plus-que-parfait: ils avaient eu, elles avaient eu, meaning "they had had." This contrasts with the passé composé form of avoir for a simple past event (ils ont eu). Etymology and morphology: Avoir derives from the Latin habere, and the imperfect endings reflect the Latin imperfect system adapted into French.

In summary, avaient is a frequently encountered form essential for expressing past states or repeated actions in the third-person plural in French, and it also functions within compound tenses to indicate completed past experiences.