Recevions

Recevions is a French verb form used in the imperfect tense. It is the first-person plural form of the verb recevoir in the indicative mood, and it translates to “we were receiving” or “we used to receive” in English.

Grammatical details: Recevions derives from the stem recev- and takes the standard imperfect endings, corresponding to nous recevions. It describes ongoing past actions or habitual states rather than a single completed event. It is commonly used with direct objects, as in nous recevions des lettres (we were receiving letters) or nous recevions des invités (we were receiving guests). In narrative and descriptive writing, the imparfait, including forms like recebions, often conveys background circumstances or a setting in the past.

Usage: In contemporary spoken French, the passé composé is frequently used to indicate past actions with a definite completion, while the imparfait, including reçions, appears in more literary, formal, or descriptive contexts. Heard in storytelling or historical narration, recevions helps establish tone and continuity of past events.

Etymology and related forms: Recevoir comes from Old French receivre, itself from Latin recipere. The form recebions is related to other imperfect endings of the recevoir paradigm, such as je recevais, tu recevais, il recevait, vous receviez, ils recevaient. Understanding recevions helps in reading and composing past narrative in French.

See also: conjugation of recevoir; imperfect tense in French; usage of the imparfait in literature and narration.