entendestes

Entendestes is the second-person plural preterite form of the verb entender in Portuguese, meaning "you understood" when addressing more than one person using the pronoun vós. It is the historical and formal counterpart to the singular tu form entendeste, which means "you understood" addressed to one person.

Conjugation and usage notes: entender is an -er verb, and the preterite ending for the second person plural in traditional European Portuguese is -estes, yielding entendestes. The corresponding present-tense form for vós is entendeis, and the past tense for vocês or eles/elas is entendermam/entenderam in contemporary usage. In modern Brazilian Portuguese, the vós forms including entendestes and entendestes are generally avoided, with past narratives using vocês entenderam or simply entenderam.

Regional and stylistic context: Entendestes is mainly found in European Portuguese, older literature, religious or formal texts, and certain regional or archaic styles. In everyday speech and most contemporary writing in Portugal, speakers typically use vocês entenderam (past) or the present entenden/entendem as appropriate, with the explicit vós form becoming less common over time.

Etymology: The verb entender comes from the Latin intendere, through the development of the Romance languages, evolving into the Portuguese entender with related forms across dialects. Entendestes reflects the inherited second-person plural preterite morphology of that heritage.

In sum, entendestes is a historical Portuguese verb form representing the past action of understanding directed at a group, mainly encountered in European Portuguese contexts and historical texts.