Agarrabais

Agarrabais is the second‑person plural form of the Spanish verb agarrar in the imperfect tense. The verb agarrar means “to grab,” “to seize,” or “to catch,” and it is an irregular verb. In the imperfect, it is formed from the stem agarr- and the standard Spanish verb endings, yielding vosotros agarrabais. This form is used to describe continuous or habitual actions in the past performed by a group of people or by the speaker and a group. For example: “Cuando era niño, vosotros agarrabais la pelota para jugar a la pelota mientras la profesora les decía que la dejaban en el suelo.” The irregular nature of agarrar means that the first‑person plural (nosotros) and the second‑person singular (tú) forms and the third‑person forms are also irregular (aguarré, agarraste, agarró, etc.), but the vosotros form follows the same pattern as other Spanish imperfects.

Agarrabais is primarily used in Peninsular Spanish, especially in regions where the vosotros form remains common. In Latin American Spanish, the ustedes form is typically preferred: “Ustedes agarraban la pelota”. The usage of vosotros in everyday speech has diminished in many areas, yet it still appears frequently in literature, teaching contexts, and formal written Spanish, which preserves the grammatical distinction.

In sum, agarrabais is a grammatical form indicating that “you (plural, vosotros) were grabbing” in the past, reflecting both the historical use of the vosotros handle and the irregularities of the verb agarrar.