complétaient

Complétaient is a French word, a past tense form of the verb "compléter." Specifically, it is the imperfect indicative plural form of "compléter," meaning "to complete" or "to fill in." Therefore, "complétaient" translates to "they were completing" or "they were filling in."

The imperfect tense in French is used to describe ongoing actions or states of being in the past, habitual actions in the past, or to provide background information in a narrative. When "complétaient" is used, it indicates that multiple subjects were in the process of completing something at a particular time in the past, or that this was a repeated action.

For example, in a sentence like "Les élèves complétaient leurs devoirs," it means "The students were completing their homework." The imperfect tense suggests that the action of completing was in progress. Another example, "Ils complétaient toujours le puzzle le dimanche," translates to "They always completed the puzzle on Sundays," indicating a habitual action in the past. The specific meaning of "complétaient" will always depend on the context of the sentence in which it appears.