« parle » definitely does not sound like « parlaient », only the 3 last letters are silent. The former sounds sorta like an English speaker would pronounce « pa

« parle » definitely does not sound like « parlaient », only the 3 last letters are silent. The former sounds sorta like an English speaker would pronounce « parhl », the latter like « pahrleh ». It also doesn’t translate to « they speak » but « they were speaking ». You might have gotten confused with « parle » and « parlent » which do sound the same (3 silent letters again) and translate to what you said!