Cerchavano

Cerchavano is the imperfect indicative form of the Italian verb cercare, meaning that they were looking for something or that they used to look for it. It expresses an ongoing or repeated action in the past and is commonly used in narrative and descriptive prose. The form belongs to the regular -are verb conjugation, with the ending -avano attached to the stem cerch- in the third-person plural.

Usage of cerchavano can describe what a group was seeking at a past moment or what they habitually sought in the past. It is often used to set scene or provide background in storytelling. For a more continuous past action, Italian can also use the imperfect together with a progressive sense, as in stavano cercando (they were looking for). Example: Nel racconto, cerchavano una chiave misteriosa per aprire la porta.

Etymology and orthography: Cercare derives from Latin circāre or cercāre, reflecting a common Romance heritage for -care verbs. The stem form in several conjugations is written cerch- to preserve the intended phonetic pronunciation, and the suffix -avano is added in the imperfect plural, yielding cerchavano. The presence of the h in these forms helps maintain the appropriate sound in the root across different endings (for example, cerchavamo, cerchi, cerchava).

See also: cercare, coniugazioni italiane, tempi verbali italiani.