audiebatis

Audiebatis is a Latin verb form meaning “you were hearing” or “you used to hear.” It is the imperfect active indicative of the verb audire, which means to hear or to listen. In Latin, the imperfect describes an ongoing or continuous past action, as opposed to a single, completed past action expressed by the perfect tense.

Morphology and conjugation: Audire is a fourth-conjugation verb. The second-person plural imperfect active ending is -batis, and the stem evidence shows the form as audie- + -batis, yielding audiebatis. Thus the form combines the -ie- characteristic of the -io verbs in the imperfect with the conventional imperfect endings. This makes audiebatis the standard way to express "you were hearing" for a group in classical Latin.

Usage: The form is used in narrative and descriptive passages to indicate that the subject plural (you) was hearing something over a period in the past. It can appear in direct or indirect speech, and may be accompanied by contextual cues such as time markers or verbs of perception. It is distinct from the present tense auditis (you hear) and the perfect audistis (you heard).

Examples: A simple example is "Vos audiebatis cantubus in hortis" meaning “You were hearing songs in the gardens.” In a question, one might say "Audiebatisne vocem magistri?" meaning “Were you listening to the teacher’s voice?”

See also: Latin verb conjugation, imperfect tense, audire. The form is one of several imperfect forms across Latin conjugations used to narrate past actions with a sense of duration or repetition.