Occurrían

Occurrían is the third-person plural imperfect indicative form of the Spanish verb ocurrir, meaning to occur or to happen. It is used to describe events or situations that were taking place in the past or that occurred repeatedly over a past period. In narrative and explanatory writing, ocurrían can convey ongoing action in past contexts.

Typically, ocurrían appears with plural subjects, for example: “Los incidentes ocurrían con frecuencia durante la madrugada” (The incidents were occurring frequently during the early hours) or “En esa época, los cambios ocurrían de forma gradual.” The imperfect aspect emphasizes duration or habituality rather than a single completed event. The form is distinct from the conditional ocurrirían, which would express what would occur under certain conditions, and from the imperfect subjunctive ocurrieran or the simple past ocurrieron.

Etymology and related forms: Ocurrir comes from a Latin origin, descended from occurre/occurere, meaning to meet, to run toward, or to happen. In contemporary Spanish, ocurrir is used in a wide range of contexts to denote that something happened or was happening, often without specifying a cause or end. The related noun ocurrencia means a happening, occurrence, or idea sparked by a momentary insight.

Note on spelling: The standard lowercase form is ocurrían. In titles or at the beginning of sentences, capitalization is used as with any word. The form Occurrían (with an initial capital) would typically appear only as a sentence-initial word or stylized usage; the correct base form without capitalization is ocurrían. See also: ocurrir, ocurrencia.