Nous avons fini par trouver une lampe torche dans le tiroir, mais elle n’avait plus de pile.

Finir par + infinitive is a very common French pattern meaning to end up doing something or to finally do something.

So nous avons fini par trouver is not just we found. It suggests there was some delay, difficulty, or repeated effort before the result.

Compare:

• Nous avons trouvé une lampe torche = we found a flashlight
• Nous avons fini par trouver une lampe torche = we eventually / finally managed to find a flashlight

Because after par, the next verb stays in the infinitive in this expression.

The structure is:

finir par + infinitive

So you get:

• finir par trouver
• finir par comprendre
• finir par accepter

Only finir is conjugated here. Trouver stays in its basic form.

In the passé composé, most French verbs use avoir as their auxiliary verb, and finir is one of them.

So:

• nous avons fini
• not nous sommes finis

You use être only with a smaller group of verbs and with reflexive verbs. Finir normally takes avoir.

Because with avoir in the passé composé, the past participle usually does not agree with the subject.

So:

• nous avons fini
• elles ont fini
• j’ai fini

The form fini stays the same here.

Past participle agreement with avoir usually happens only if a direct object comes before the verb, which is not the case in this sentence.

Lampe torche does mean flashlight, and learners may also see lampe de poche, which is very common too.

So depending on region and speaker, both can be used:

• une lampe torche
• une lampe de poche

A learner should recognize both. Torche by itself can mean torch, but it can also be understood as a flashlight in some contexts, so lampe torche is clearer.

Because elle refers to une lampe torche, and lampe is a feminine noun.

In French, pronouns must match the noun’s grammatical gender:

• une lampe → elle
• un tiroir → il

So elle n’avait plus de pile means the flashlight no longer had a battery / batteries.

Dans means in / inside, so it is the natural preposition for something located inside a drawer.

• dans le tiroir = in the drawer
• sur le tiroir = on the drawer
• sous le tiroir = under the drawer

The article le is used because French often uses the definite article for something understood from context, where English might sometimes also say a drawer.

Ne... plus means no longer, not anymore, or no more.

So:

• elle n’avait plus de pile = it no longer had a battery / it didn’t have a battery anymore

This is a very important negative structure in French:

• Je ne fume plus = I don’t smoke anymore
• Il n’est plus là = He is no longer there

In everyday spoken French, people often drop ne, so you may hear:

• Elle avait plus de pile

But in careful written French, ne is normally kept.

The sentence uses the imparfait because having no battery is presented as a state or condition of the flashlight at the time they found it.

So:

• elle n’avait plus de pile = it didn’t have a battery anymore / it no longer had a battery

This sounds natural because the speaker is describing what the flashlight was like when they found it.

If you used a perfect-style tense instead, it would sound more like a separate completed event, not just a background condition.

After a negative expression such as ne... pas or ne... plus, French usually changes un / une / des to de.

Compare:

• Elle avait une pile = It had a battery
• Elle n’avait plus de pile = It no longer had a battery

This is a very common rule:

• J’ai un livre → Je n’ai pas de livre
• Il a des amis → Il n’a plus d’amis

Yes, piles could also be possible, depending on what the speaker means.

• elle n’avait plus de pile suggests no battery / no cell
• elle n’avait plus de piles suggests no batteries

The singular in French can be used naturally when talking about the absence of something in a general way, especially if the speaker is thinking of the flashlight as needing a battery to work. If the flashlight clearly takes several batteries, speakers may prefer de piles.

Because ne becomes n’ before a vowel sound.

So:

• ne avait becomes n’avait

This is called elision, and it happens very often in French:

• je aime → j’aime
• ne est → n’est
• le ami → l’ami