cortabas

Cortabas is the second-person singular imperfect indicative form of the Spanish verb cortar, meaning you were cutting or you used to cut. It describes ongoing or habitual past actions or states in which the subject you performed the action over a period of time or repeatedly.

Grammatically, cortabas is a regular -ar verb form. The imperfect endings for -ar verbs are -aba, -abas, -aba, -ábamos, -abais, -aban, so cortabas follows the pattern cort- + abas. The subject pronoun tú is typically implied, though it can be made explicit as in tú cortabas.

Common uses include describing past routines or ongoing actions, as in sentences like “Cuando llegaste, cortabas la madera” or “Antes, cortabas el césped cada semana.” It can also convey a sense of simultaneous action in the past, especially when paired with other past tenses or subordinate clauses. Cortabas is contrasted with pretérito perfecto simple cortaste, which indicates a completed, punctual action.

Etymology traces cortar to the Spanish verb of Latin origin, with corte forms evolving through Old Spanish into modern usage. The form cortabas is firmly established in standard Spanish as the habitual past tense for tú with -ar verbs and is widely understood across dialects. See also: cortar, imperfect tense, conjugation patterns of -ar verbs.