commençait

Commencait is the imperfect, third-person singular form of the French verb commencer, meaning to begin or to start. In the imperfect (imparfait) tense, regular -er verbs take endings such as -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient; therefore the form for il/elle/on is commençait.

The spelling uses a cedilla under the c (ç) to preserve the soft [s] sound before the vowels a, o, or u in the stem commen-. This orthographic feature appears in several forms of the verb, including commençait, to maintain the pronunciation.

Etymology and classification: commencer comes from Old French comencier, itself from Latin incipere, meaning to begin. In modern French, commencer is a regular -er verb with the notable orthographic rule that the cedilla is kept in certain forms to preserve the [s] sound before a, o, or u.

Usage: Commencait describes a past action that was ongoing, repeated, or used to set a scene. It is commonly followed by à + infinitive to express the start of a new action: commencer à faire quelque chose. Examples: Il commençait à pleuvoir (it began to rain). La journée commençait tranquillement (the day was starting slowly). The form is frequent in narrative prose and historical writing to convey background events in the past.