Passèrent was used with a family, "les Hobbits,"

Bonjour K, I think the issue here is that «la famille» was not used in the phrase but Les Hobbits was. Had the question been, «la famille, les Hobbits» then the 3rd person singular «passa» would be used. I do not recall anything that I have studied stating if the nom de la famille is used, then it is understood to be «la famille» for conjugation purposes. Bonne chance,

Hi, Maybe the confusion came from something I vaguely remember related to Le Dupont being the Dupont family and that being singular. Thanks for the clarification K

Bien sûr pas de problème. Bonne chance,