décevais

Décevais is the imperfect tense form of the French verb décevoir, which means to disappoint or to fail to meet someone’s expectations. The verb is transitive and can describe causing someone to feel let down, lose trust, or be unsatisfied with a situation. Its sense is often about ongoing or repeated disappointment in the past, rather than a single completed act.

In the imperfect tense, the conjugation is je décevais, tu décevais, il décevait, nous décevions, vous déceviez, ils décevaient. Décevoir forms its compound tenses with the auxiliary avoir, giving examples such as j’ai déçu, tu as déçu, il a déçu (I disappointed, you disappointed, he disappointed). The present participle is décevant, and the past participle is déçu, used with the auxiliary avoir in compounds.

Usage and nuance: décevoir conveys both the act of disappointing someone and the resulting feeling or situation. The imperfect décevais often appears in narratives to set a background of repeated letdowns, or to describe a habitual behavior in the past. It can take reflexive or indirect object pronouns, as in je te décevais or tu me décevais, to specify who was disappointed.

Etymology and related forms: décevoir derives from Old French deceivre or decevoir, with roots linked to the Latin decipere, meaning to deceive, reflecting a historical connection between misleading and disappointing. Related forms include the past participle déçu and the present participle décevant.