remettant

Remettant is the present participle of the French verb remettre. Remettre has several related meanings, including to put back in its place, to restore, to hand over, to defer or postpone, and to relaunch or renew. As a present participle, remettant is used to form participial phrases that describe an accompanying or sequential action.

In usage, remettant typically appears in clauses that describe what is happening at the same time as another action, often in participial or absolute constructions. For example, Remettant les documents à l'avocat, il partit means “Handing over the documents to the lawyer, he left.” The form can also occur in conjunction with en to express a concurrent or manner of action: En remettant à plus tard l’examen du dossier, ils retardèrent la décision.

Etymology and form: remettre derives from mettre with the prefix re-, signaling repetition or return. The present participle follows the standard French pattern for -re verbs, yielding remettant. Like other participles, remettant agrees with the subject of the action only in the sense of a non-finite clause; it does not inflect for gender or number.

Translation and nuance: In English, remettant is often rendered as “returning,” “handing back,” or “reinstating,” depending on the sense of remettre in a given sentence. It can also convey postponement when remettre is used in the sense of delaying.

See also: remettre, present participle, en + participle construction.