Osservavate

Osservavate is the second person plural imperfect indicative form of the Italian verb osservare, meaning to observe, watch, or notice. It corresponds to you were observing or you used to observe in English and is used when describing past actions that were ongoing, habitual, or in progress with voi as the subject. The form is common in narrative past and in everyday speech, especially when referring to a shared past activity.

Etymology and classification: osservare comes from Latin observare, formed from ob- (toward) and servare (to keep, preserve). In Italian, osservare is a regular -are verb, so its imperfect forms follow the standard pattern for this conjugation. The imperfect emphasizes duration or repetition in the past rather than a completed action.

Usage notes: The imperfect tense conveys ongoing or habitual past actions, descriptions, or settings. When the subject is voi, osservavate indicates that a group was performing the observing action in the past. It can appear with time expressions or in clauses introduced by mentre (while) or quando (when) to mark simultaneous or interrupted actions.

Conjugation overview: For -are verbs in the imperfect, the endings are -avo, -avi, -ava, -avamo, -avate, -avano. Therefore, voi osservavate is formed from the stem osserv- plus -avate. This form is distinct from the present voi osservate (you observe) and from the other imperfect forms such as osservavano (they observed).

Example: Voi osservavate attentamente i dettagli della scena ogni volta che entrava una novità.