opérèrent

Opérèrent is the third-person plural passé simple form of the French verb opérer. In narrative or formal writing, it translates to “they operated” or “they performed,” indicating a completed action in the past.

Formation and usage: Opérer, a regular -er verb, forms the passé simple with the endings common to -er verbs. For ils/elles, the ending is -èrent, yielding opérèrent. The accent marks reflect the verb’s orthography, with the stem typically appearing as opér-. The form is distinct from the passé composé nous/ils forms and other past tenses, and is mainly encountered in literary, historical, or formal prose.

Usage context: The passé simple, including opérèrent, is characteristic of written French from classical periods through 19th-century literature. In contemporary spoken French and most modern writing, speakers favor the passé composé or other tenses rather than the passé simple. For example, a modern sentence would normally be ils ont opéré, while in a historical novel one might find ils opérèrent.

Etymology and related forms: Opérer comes from Latin operari, meaning “to work,” related to opus, “work.” The noun opération (operation) and the noun opérateur (operator) share the same root. The present participle is opérant, and related forms reflect the same semantic family of work, action, and performing tasks.

In summary, opérèrent is a literary past tense form used to describe a completed act of operating performed by a group, most commonly found in older or formal French texts.