parlent

Parlent is the third-person plural present indicative form of the French verb parler, meaning to speak or to talk. It is used with plural subjects, such as ils or elles, to indicate that more than one person is speaking. In plain terms, parlent corresponds to the English "they speak" or "they are speaking."

Parler is an irregularly regular -er verb in its conjugation pattern. The present tense forms are: je parle, tu parles, il parle, nous parlons, vous parlez, ils parlent. The -ent ending in parlent is silent in standard pronunciation, as is typical for the present tense of many French verbs.

Etymology and usage context: Parler comes from Old French and ultimately from Latin roots common to the Romance language family. Parlent appears in everyday French, including conversation, journalism, literature, and formal writing, whenever the subject is plural and the action is taking place in the present.

Related forms include parler (the infinitive), parlé (the past participle used in compound tenses like avoir parlé), and parlant (the present participle, as in en parlant). The term lives primarily as a verb form rather than a standalone noun in modern French.

Examples: "Ils parlent de leurs vacances." "Elles parlent trois langues." The form is versatile and appears in reported speech, dialogue, and descriptive narration.

See also: parler, parlé, parlant, parole.