currebant

Currebant is the imperfect active indicative form of the Latin verb curro, currere, meaning to run. It is the third-person plural form, translated as “they were running” or “they used to run.” The imperfect conveys a continuous or repeated action in the past.

Morphology and usage. The form currebant is built from the present stem curr- with the imperfect marker -eba- and the plural personal ending -nt. This aligns with the standard imperfect conjugation pattern for Latin verbs in the -ere class. The imperfect is commonly used to set scenes in past narrative, describe ongoing past actions, or indicate habitual past activity.

Examples. Currebant ad scholam. They were running to the school. Milites currebant per campum. The soldiers were running across the field. These examples illustrate how currebant can describe action in progress rather than completed events.

Etymology and cognates. The root curr- in curro derives from the Proto-Italic verb for running and has given rise to several Latin derivatives and a family of English cognates. English words such as current, cursor, curriculum, and cursive trace their lineage to related forms connected with running, speed, and motion.

See also. Latin verb conjugation, curro, imperfect tense, Latin motion verbs.