sétendant

Sétendant is a nonstandard spelling of the present participle of the French verb s’étendre. The correct form is s’étendant, formed from the pronominal verb s’étendre and the present participle suffix -ant. In standard French orthography, the reflexive pronoun before a vowel contracts to s’ and the apostrophe is preserved, yielding s’étendant. The form sétendant may appear as a typographical error, OCR misread, or in historical texts where older spellings varied, but it is not accepted in contemporary dictionaries or formal writing.

As a present participle, s’étendant is used to describe ongoing action related to extension or spreading. It can function in phrases such as en s’étendant sur plusieurs kilomètres, meaning “as it extends over several kilometers,” or in constructions like le pays s’étendant vers le sud, “the country extending toward the south.” The form sétendant does not have a recognized grammatical function in modern French and is generally treated as a misspelling.

Usage notes: In modern writing, s’étendant should be used in all standard contexts. Some language references or digitized texts may list sétendant as a nonstandard variant or error, but it is not considered correct French.

See also: s’étendre, étendre, French orthography, present participle.