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Toutes les fenêtres étaient fermées.

Toutes les fenêtres étaient fermées.
All the windows were closed.
From Lesson 269:Shops and eating out·French

Breakdown of Toutes les fenêtres étaient fermées.

être
to be
la fenêtre
the window
tout
all, everything
fermé
closed

Questions & Answers about Toutes les fenêtres étaient fermées.

Why is étaient in the imperfect tense here instead of the passé composé?
The imperfect tense is used to describe an ongoing state, a background setting, or a condition in the past. Here, the windows being closed is a description of how things were, rather than a specific action that was completed at a specific moment.
Why is the word for all spelled Toutes instead of Tous or Tout?
The word for all (tout) must agree in gender and number with the noun it modifies. Since the word fenêtre is feminine and it is plural in this sentence, tout changes to the feminine plural form toutes.
Why do we need les after toutes?
In French, when you mean all the or all of the, you must include the definite article (le, la, or les) between the form of tout and the noun. So, all the windows requires both parts: toutes les fenêtres.
Why does fermées have an extra -es at the end?
Here, fermées acts as an adjective describing the state of the windows. Because fenêtre is a feminine noun and there is more than one, you must add an -e for feminine and an -s for plural to make it match the subject.

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