acordaba

Acordaba is a form of the Portuguese verb acordar in the imperfect indicative. It expresses past actions that were habitual or ongoing, most commonly meaning “I used to wake up” or “he/she was waking up.” The sense can also be related to the verb’s other meaning, “to agree,” in contexts where agreement was ongoing or habitual.

Conjugation in the imperfect indicative (singular to plural) is: eu acordava, tu acordavas, ele/ela acordava, nós acordávamos, vós acordáveis, eles acordavam. In Brazilian Portuguese, the second-person forms tu and vós are less common; the corresponding familiar forms are usually eu acordava, você acordava, ele acordava, nós acordávamos, vocês acordavam.

Usage and examples help illustrate the nuance. Eu acordava cedo todos os dias. (I used to wake up early every day.) Ela acordava quando o despertador tocou. (She was waking up / She woke up as the alarm rang, with a past ongoing action or interruption.) The imperfect is also used for descriptions in the past, such as the routine of waking up in childhood: “Quando era criança, eu acordava tarde.”

In some contexts related to negotiation, acordar can mean to reach an agreement. In those cases, acordava expresses the sense of habitual or ongoing agreement, as in “eles acordavam de um preço” (they were agreeing on a price) or “eles acordaram um preço” (they agreed on a price). The exact meaning depends on context and accompanying words.