Bývali

Bývali is a grammatical form found in Czech and Slovak, derived from the verb bývat (Czech) or bývať (Slovak), meaning to be in the habit, to reside regularly, or to live. Bývali is the past imperfect form used with plural subjects, conveying habitual or repeated states in the past rather than a single completed event. In English, it is typically translated as “they used to be” or “they used to live.”

In practice, bývali appears in descriptive or historical prose to indicate what was customary or recurring in the past. Examples include statements like “Bývali tam často” (They used to be there often) or “Keď boli mladí, bývali v tejto oblasti” (When they were young, they used to live in this area). The form can appear with various plural subjects (my, vy, oni), depending on the sentence.

The form is part of the imperfective aspect, highlighting ongoing or repeated past actions rather than one-off occurrences. It contrasts with the corresponding singular past form býval and other tenses that describe past events with a defined endpoint.

Related forms include the infinitive bývat/bývať, present-tense forms such as bývám/bývaš, and other past forms like býval or bývali, which are inflected for person and number according to standard Czech or Slovak conjugation patterns.

Bývali is widely understood in both languages and remains common in narrative, historical writing, and everyday speech when describing past habits or habitual states.