atrevíais

atrevíais is a Spanish verb form used to express that a group of people (you plural) dared to do something in the imperfect tense. It represents the second-person plural form of the verb atreverse (to dare oneself) in its pronominal usage, where the common modern spelling is os atrevíais, meaning you all dared yourselves or you all used to dare. The non-pronominal variant of the verb, atrevir, also yields a form atrevíais in the imperfect, but this usage is much less common today and is more likely to be found in older texts or dictionaries.

Usage and distinctions:

In contemporary usage, the reflexive form os atrevíais is the standard way to convey the sense of daring oneself to undertake an action. The non-reflexive form atrevíais can occur in historical or literary contexts when the action is presented without the reflexive nuance, for example to state that “you all dared to do something” without specifying a reflexive sense.

Conjugation note:

The form atrevíais appears in the imperfect indicative for vosotros (you all). In modern Spanish, Latin American varieties that do not use vosotros would instead use ustedes and a different set of verb forms.

See also:

atreverse, atrevir

This article is a concise overview of a specific verb form and its typical usage within Spanish grammar.