importées

Importées is the feminine plural past participle of the French verb importer. In French, it is used as an adjective or in compound tenses to denote something that has been brought into a country or produced outside the reference area. It typically modifies feminine plural nouns, as in marchandises importées or idées importées.

Grammatical use involves agreement rules. As a past participle of être in perfect tenses, importées agrees with the subject (e.g., les marchandises ont été importées). When used with the auxiliary avoir, the participle generally agrees with a preceding direct object (e.g., les articles que nous avons importées? note that the DO would need to precede and agree in gender and number). As an adjective, importées mirrors the gender and number of the noun it describes.

Etymology traces importées to the Latin importare, from in- (in) and portare (to carry), via Old French importer. The form reflects standard French past-participle agreement patterns and the semantic shift from “to bring in” to “brought in.”

Usage and scope: The term is common in economic, customs, and supply-chain discourse to describe items that have entered a country from abroad, such as fruits importés or produits importés. The noun most often used for the act of bringing goods in is importation, while importées functions as an adjectival form. Distinctions exist with imported goods being referred to more generally as importations, depending on context and emphasis.