No. 6,129 in French
etaient
"Étaient" means "were" in English.
In a sentence
Ils étaient heureux de célébrer ensemble.
They were happy to celebrate together.
The word 'étaient' is the past imperfect tense of the verb 'être' (to be) and is used here to describe a state of happiness in the past.
Les enfants étaient partis avant mon arrivée.
The children had left before my arrival.
In this sentence, 'étaient' forms part of the pluperfect tense when combined with the past participle 'partis', indicating an action completed in the past before another past event.
Elles y étaient souvent pour leurs réunions.
They were often there for their meetings.
Here, 'étaient' is used to express a recurring or habitual action in the past where 'being' is the focus.
Hear it in real podcasts
The recording above is a synthetic voice. Hear how people say “etaient” in actual French podcasts.
Find “etaient” in podcastsLearn 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 appFrench books and courses on Amazon (an affiliate link: a purchase through it supports this site).