Breakdown of Toutes les maisons sont abandonnées et les planches pourrissent.
être
to be
et
and
la maison
the house
tout
all, everything
abandonné
abandoned
la planche
the board (plank)
pourrir
to rot
Questions & Answers about Toutes les maisons sont abandonnées et les planches pourrissent.
Why is it toutes instead of tous here?
Is sont abandonnées the passé composé tense?
It looks similar, but it is actually the present tense! Here, être (to be) is in the present (sont) and abandonnées acts as an adjective describing the current state of the houses. If it were the active passé composé, it would use avoir, like: Ils ont abandonné les maisons (They abandoned the houses).
Why does abandonnées have an -es at the end?
Where does the -issent ending in pourrissent come from?
It comes from the verb pourrir (to rot). This is a regular -ir verb (like choisir or finir). To conjugate it for les planches (which is equivalent to elles or 'they') in the present tense, you drop the -ir and add the ending -issent.
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