Descobristes

Descobristes is a verb form in Portuguese. It represents the second-person plural in the pretérito perfeito (past tense) of the verb descobrir, and is used with the archaic or formal pronoun vós. In contemporary Portuguese, especially in Brazil, this form is rarely used and often regarded as literary or regional.

Conjugation and form: the verb descobrir follows regular -ir verb patterns in the pretérito perfeito for the vós form, yielding: eu descobri, tu descobriste, ele descobriu, nós descobrimos, vós descobristes, eles descobriram. The occurrence of descobristes is tied to the second-person plural subject pronoun vós, which is uncommon outside historical or liturgical contexts.

Usage: descobristes appears predominantly in classical literature, religious texts, and stylistic writings that aim to evoke historical Portuguese. It may be encountered in grammars or corpora that document older conjugation forms. In everyday modern usage, speakers typically employ vocês descobriram or tu descobriste in singular contexts, rather than the vós form.

Etymology and meaning: descobrir derives from des- (a prefix indicating reversal or negation) plus cobrir (to cover), with cobrir tracing back to Latin cooperire (to cover). The semantic shift from “to uncover” to “to discover” is reflected in the broader repertoire of Portuguese verb formation.

See also: descobrir, descobrimento, conjugação verbal, vós.