prouvés

Prouvés is the masculine plural past participle of prouver, the French verb meaning to prove. Used as an adjective or in passive constructions, prouvés conveys that something has been demonstrated or established by evidence. The feminine forms are prouvée (singular) and prouvées (plural).

Origin and forms: From Latin probare, via Old French prouver. The word joins a family of terms in Romance languages that express demonstration or verification, and it functions in modern French as both a participle and an adjective describing proven results or propositions.

Usage: Common in scientific, mathematical, legal, and journalistic contexts to describe claims or results that have been demonstrated. Examples: des résultats prouvés (proven results), un fait prouvé (a proven fact), la théorie a été prouvée (the theory has been proven). Note the distinction from preuves, a noun meaning proofs or evidence: des preuves are proofs themselves, whereas prouvé describes the state of having been proven.

Grammar: With auxiliary être in compound tenses, the participle prouvé agrees with the subject: les résultats prouvés, la théorie prouvée, etc. With avoir, agreement occurs only when a preceding direct object exists: il a prouvé la théorie (no preceding direct object in agreement with prouvé). In summary, prouvés denotes something that has been demonstrated, and its form changes to reflect gender and number.