escapabais

Escapabais is the second-person plural imperfect indicative form of the Spanish verb escapar, meaning you all were escaping or you all used to escape. It is used with the subject vosotros or vosotras, primarily in Spain and in regions where that pronoun form is common.

In everyday Latin American Spanish, the equivalent past habitual or continuous meaning is usually conveyed with ustedes escapaban. The form escapabais is therefore characteristic of the vosotras/vosotros variant of Spanish and reflects regular verb conjugation patterns rather than irregularities.

Grammatically, escapabais follows the standard imperfect pattern for -ar verbs. The stem is escap- and the ending is -abais, producing escapabais without any accent mark. There are no stem changes in this tense for escapar, and it contrasts with other imperfect forms such as escapaba, escapabas, escapábamos, and escapaban.

Usage notes: the imperfect conveys ongoing, habitual, or repeated past actions or background circumstances. Escapabais can set a scene in narration or describe routines in the past when the vosotras/vosotros form is appropriate. Its usage is more common in written or formal contexts or in regions where the vosotros form is standard.

Example: Cuando erais jóvenes, escapabais de la clase para jugar en el patio. This illustrates a habitual past action addressing a group using the vosotros form.

See also: escapar; imperfect indicative; vosostros/vosotras conjugation; regional variations in Spanish pronouns.