Llegabais

Llegabais is the second person plural imperfect indicative form of the Spanish verb llegar. It corresponds to “you all were arriving” or “you all used to arrive” and is used with the vosotros subject, a pronoun common in Spain. The imperfect tense describes ongoing or habitual past actions, states, or repeated events, as opposed to completed actions.

Formation and usage: The form is built from the infinitive llegar, using the imperfect endings for -ar verbs with the vosotros form: -abais. Thus llegabais is lleg- + -abais. Example sentences include: “Cuando éramos niños, llegabais tarde los lunes” and “Antes, vosotros llegabais a las ocho.” These illustrate the sense of habitual past action or ongoing activity in the past.

Regional variation: The vosotros form, and therefore llegabais, is standard in Peninsular Spanish but not used in most of Latin America, where ustedes forms are common. In those varieties, the corresponding imperfect would be ustedes llegaban (or ustedes llegaban a menudo), rather than vosotros llegabais. In literary or formal contexts that preserve the vosotros form, llegabais remains appropriate and understood.

Related forms: Llegar belongs to the regular -ar verb paradigm in the imperfect. Other vosotros imperfect forms follow the same pattern (hablabais, comíais, vivíais). The imperfect contrasts with the preterite (llegasteis for ustedes or vosotros llegasteis in Spain) and with the present tense (llegáis).