répandaient

Répandre is a French verb meaning to spread, disseminate, or scatter something from one place to another, or to propagate ideas, information, substances, or materials. It can be used in literal senses, such as spreading seeds or liquid, and in figurative senses, such as spreading rumors or information. The verb is transitive and can take a direct object.

Répandaient is the third-person plural imperfect (imparfait) form of répandre. The imperfect conveys an ongoing or habitual action in the past. The stem répand- takes the standard imperfect endings: -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient. Therefore, ils répandaient means “they were spreading” or “they used to spread.” For example, Ils répandaient des rumeurs sur le projet, is a sentence meaning “They were spreading rumors about the project.”

Etymology and related forms: répandre comes from Old French repandre, itself from Latin repandere, meaning to spread out. Related forms include the present tense répandent (ils répandent), the present participle répandant, and the past participle répandu. These forms share the same root meaning and are used across various tenses to describe distribution, dissemination, or propagation in both literal and figurative contexts.