mouraient

Mouraient is the third-person plural imperfect indicative form of the French verb mourir, meaning “they were dying” or “they used to die.” It is used to describe ongoing or habitual actions in the past, especially in narrative or descriptive writing. As a past imperfect form, it provides background information or sets the scene in opposition to completed past actions.

Formation and paradigm: mourir has the stem mour- in the imperfect, combined with the regular imperfect endings: -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient. Therefore, the form is mouraient for ils/elles. This regularity applies to the imperfect in most standard contexts, though mourir itself is irregular in some other tenses (such as passé composé and indicative present).

Usage and context: Mouraient expresses a continuous or repeated past action rather than a single completed event. It often appears in literary prose to convey atmosphere, gradual decline, or background mortality. It contrasts with the passé simple form moururent (they died) and with the present tense meurent or passé composé sont morts (they die, they died). In conditional or hypothetical clauses, the imperfect can appear with other tenses, e.g., «Je pensais qu’ils mouraient» (I thought they were dying).

Examples: «Ils mouraient de faim» (they were dying of hunger). «Je pensais qu’ils mouraient et que plus rien ne pouvait les sauver» (I thought they were dying and nothing could save them). Etymology: mourir derives from Latin mori, with the imperfect form mouraient reflecting standard Romance verb conjugation patterns.