No. 12,291 in French

écoulait

"Écoulait" means "was flowing" or "was passing."

In a sentence

Le temps s'écoulait rapidement alors que nous nous amusions.
Time flew by quickly as we had fun.
The verb 's'écoulait' is used to convey the passing of time in an impressionistic way.
L'eau s'écoulait lentement dans le ruisseau.
The water flowed slowly in the stream.
Here, 's'écoulait' describes the physical action of water flowing through a designated path.
Les jours s'écoulait sans qu'il ne remarque le changement.
The days passed by without him noticing the change.
In this instance, 's'écoulait' signifies time passing in a more reflective or unnoticed manner.

Hear it in real podcasts

The recording above is a synthetic voice. Hear how people say “écoulait” in actual French podcasts.

Learn it from shows you like

LangTurbo plays French podcasts with a transcript and the English under every line. Tap a word like this one and it tells you what it means right there.

Get the app

French books and courses on Amazon (an affiliate link: a purchase through it supports this site).