audiebat

Audiebat is a Latin verb form meaning "he/she/it was hearing" or "he/she/it used to hear." It is the imperfect active indicative, 3rd person singular, of audire (to hear, to listen). Audire is a fourth-conjugation verb; in the imperfect its forms include audiebam, audiebas, audiebat, audiebamus, audiebatis, audiebant.

In usage, the imperfect tense expresses a past action that was ongoing, habitual, or background. Thus audiebat conveys "was hearing" or "used to hear" in context, as opposed to the perfect audivit ("he heard") or the pluperfect audiverat ("he had heard"). Example: Marcus vocem audiebat, "Marcus was hearing a voice."

Notes: The form is common in classical Latin. It follows the standard pattern of fourth-conjugation imperfect verbs, with the characteristic -ie- before the imperfect endings. The verb's lexeme remains audire, and related forms include audiebam (I was hearing) and audiet (he/she will hear); the present audit ("he hears") and the perfect audivit ("he heard") illustrate the tense system in Latin.