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French frequency list

No. 112 in French

avaient

"Avaient" is the third-person plural imperfect tense of "avoir," meaning "they had."

In a sentence

  • Ils avaient déjà fini leurs devoirs avant mon arrivée.

    They had already finished their homework before my arrival.

    The word 'avaient' is a form of the verb 'avoir', functioning as the auxiliary verb in the pluperfect tense, indicating completion of an action before another past event.

  • Les enfants avaient beaucoup d'énergie après leur sieste.

    The children had a lot of energy after their nap.

    The word 'avaient' refers to the possession of energy, as the verb 'avoir' means 'to have' in the imperfect tense here, describing a past ongoing state.

  • Elles avaient toujours beaucoup d’ambition dans leur jeunesse.

    They always had a lot of ambition in their youth.

    The word 'avaient' expresses a past habitual action or state, as the verb 'avoir' is used in the imperfect tense here to indicate an enduring condition or characteristic in the past.

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