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# étaient — French to English

How French *étaient* is translated into English in open, checked parallel texts.

The Elamur Dictionary has no French section yet; the English translations below link to their meanings where it has them.

Sentence pairs counted, by form: étaient (307 593). By style: everyday 1 370 · literary 212 · biblical 823 · parliamentary 10 143 · legal and administrative 21 810 · UN documents 273 235.

## More sentences

Sentence pairs with the word where no single translation was found: it may be translated by a phrase, or left out.

- « Tu vas salir tes habits. » « Ne t'en fais pas. Ils n'**étaient** pas très propres à l'origine. »
  "You'll get your clothes dirty." "No worries. They weren't very clean in the first place."
  ([Tatoeba](https://tatoeba.org/) · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR · sentences by U2FS and fcbond · checked, community translation · [\#328602](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/328602) [\#690634](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/690634))

- Ils **étaient** renvoyés d'un bureau à l'autre.
  They were transferred from one office to another.
  ([Tatoeba](https://tatoeba.org/) · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR · sentences by hortusdei and CK · checked, community translation · [\#306283](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/306283) [\#139807](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/139807))

- Les rues **étaient** calmes.
  The streets were quiet.
  ([Tatoeba](https://tatoeba.org/) · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR · sentences by Aiji and Hybrid · checked, community translation · [\#5806494](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/5806494) [\#6935982](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/6935982))

## Grammar

Notes on grammar and translation on Mova: [French grammar](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/fr/) · [English grammar](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/en/) · [translating between English and French](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/translation/pairs/en-fr/) · [translating from French](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/translation/from-fr/) · [translating into English](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/translation/into-en/).

## About these examples

Translations are found by how often the two words stand in the same sentence pairs, and the highlighted words are matched automatically: both are approximate. Counts are estimated from a sample of each source. Every example names its source and licence. [Submit a better translation or example](https://md.translate.elamur.ai/free/en/submit/?pair=fr-en&word=%C3%A9taient).


Every example is quoted under its source's licence and credited with it; the rest of the site is open under the Elamur Cosmic License.