Learn French: Ils se disputaient depuis des semaines parce que la clôture empiétait sur le chemin. - They had been arguing for weeks because the fence was encroaching on the path.

Ils se disputaient depuis des semaines parce que la clôture empiétait sur le chemin.

They had been arguing for weeks because the fence was encroaching on the path.

Breakdown of Ils se disputaient depuis des semaines parce que la clôture empiétait sur le chemin.

des

some (plural indefinite)

ils

they (masculine/mixed)

Questions & Answers about Ils se disputaient depuis des semaines parce que la clôture empiétait sur le chemin.

Why is se disputaient in the imparfait when the English translation says "had been arguing"?

This is the classic imparfait + depuis structure. When an action started in the past and was still ongoing at the past moment you are describing, French uses the imparfait. English uses the past perfect continuous ("had been doing"). If you had used the French past perfect (ils s'étaient disputés), it would imply the arguing had already completely finished before another past action.

What does the se add to disputaient here?

It makes the verb reciprocal. The base verb disputer usually means "to scold" (e.g., scolding a child) or "to compete for" (e.g., a trophy). By adding the pronoun se, it becomes se disputer, which specifically means "to argue with each other".

I know verbs with an é often change it to è in different conjugations. Why does empiétait keep the é?

Stem-changing verbs like empiéter (to encroach) or préférer (to prefer) only change their é to è when the following syllable contains a silent "e" (as in the present tense: la clôture empiète). In the imparfait, the -ait ending is pronounced, so the accent remains é.