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Ensuite, mes tantes sont tombées malades pendant l'excursion.

Ensuite, mes tantes sont tombées malades pendant l'excursion.
Then, my aunts fell ill during the excursion.
From Lesson 127:Past participle agreement with the subject (elles sont allées)·French

Questions & Answers about Ensuite, mes tantes sont tombées malades pendant l'excursion.

Why is there an -es at the end of tombées?
Because tomber (to fall) uses être as its helping verb in the past tense (passé composé), the past participle has to match the subject. The subject here is mes tantes (my aunts). Since aunts are feminine and plural, we add an -e (feminine) and an -s (plural) to the basic past participle tombé.
Why do we use sont here instead of ont?
In French, most verbs use avoir (to have) to form the past tense, but tomber is one of the special motion/state verbs (often taught with the acronym DR MRS VANDERTRAMP) that must use être (to be) instead. So, instead of saying 'they have fallen', French phrasing is literally 'they are fallen' (elles sont tombées).
Why does malades have an -s at the end?
In the expression tomber malade (to fall ill / to get sick), the word malade acts as an adjective describing the person who is sick. Because the subject (mes tantes) is plural, malade needs an -s to agree with it.
Can I use dans instead of pendant to say 'during the excursion'?
No. While dans translates to 'in', it usually refers to being inside a physical space or happening in an amount of time in the future (like 'in five minutes'). To say 'during' an event or a specific period of time, you must use pendant.

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