escapaban

Escapaban is the third-person plural imperfect indicative form of the Spanish verb escapar, meaning to escape. The imperfect tense expresses past actions that were ongoing, habitual, or set as background in a narrative, rather than completed events. Thus escapaban can be translated as they were escaping or they used to escape, depending on context.

Conjugation note: the imperfect forms of escapar are yo escapaba, tú escapabas, él escapaba, nosotros escapábamos, vosotros escapabais, ellos escapaban.

Usage examples illustrate its functions: “Los prisioneros escapaban a través de un túnel cada noche” shows a repeated past action, and “Cuando llegaron, ellos escapaban sin hacer ruido” sets a scene with ongoing action in the past. In contrast, the preterite form escaparon describes a completed escape.

Common pitfalls include confusing escapaban with escaparon; the former conveys ongoing or habitual past activity, while the latter denotes a single, completed event. Escapaban is also contrasted with the present tense escaparán in future contexts when discussing planned escapes in a different time frame.

Related terms include the infinitive escapar and the reflexive form escaparse, which adds nuances such as escaping oneself or slipping away, depending on construction. Escapar is a regular -ar verb, so its imperfect forms follow standard pattern, making escapaban a predictable example of Spanish past-tense morphology.