sentait

Sentait is a form of the French verb sentir, meaning to feel or to sense. Specifically, sentait is the imperfect indicative used with the third-person singular subject (il, elle, on). It describes a past perception or sensation that was ongoing or repeated, or a past state of feeling.

Formation and usage: sentir belongs to the group of regular -ir verbs in the imperfect tense. The endings for all subjects are -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient. Therefore, sentait corresponds to il/elle/on in the imperfect. Examples include: il sentait le parfum de fleurs; elle sentait le bois chauffé par le soleil. In translation, sentait can be rendered as "was feeling," "smelled," or "perceived," depending on context.

Meaning and nuance: sentait generally refers to sensory perception or internal feeling in the past rather than a completed single event. It often appears in descriptive narration, setting atmosphere or reporting a continuous sensation. In colloquial speech, the sense of smell conveyed by sentir is common, as in "il sentait la soupe" (he could smell the soup). The form is not used for immediate past actions; for that, other tenses such as the passé composé or passé simple might be used.

Related forms and etymology: sentir comes from Latin sentirē (“to feel, perceive”) and has cognates in other Romance languages. Related nouns include sentiment and sensation, which share the same root. The verb also appears in many compound tenses with appropriate auxiliary forms.

See also: sentir, imperfait, conjugation patterns of -ir verbs, French verb conjugation.