estais

Estais is not a standard lexical item in modern French. It is most commonly encountered as a misspelling or nonstandard variant of the second-person singular imperfect of the verb être, which in correct spelling is étais. The French imperfect forms of être follow the -ais endings, and tu corresponds to étais rather than estais. Because the accent is essential to correct French orthography, estais is generally regarded as incorrect in standard writing.

In standard French, the proper form for the second-person singular in the imperfect tense is étais. Other forms of être in the imperfect include étais (tu), était (il/elle/on), étions (nous), étiez (vous), étaient (ils/elles). Some older or dialectal texts may show historical or regional variations, but these are not part of contemporary standard French usage. When writing in French, usage should favor étais for “you were” with tu, and étiez for “you were” with vous.

Across languages, a similar-looking word exists with a different diacritic: in Spanish, estás means “you are” in the present tense for vosotros/vosotras, written estáis with an acute accent. This illustrates how diacritics can change meaning and grammatical category between related languages.

Beyond language forms, Estais may appear as a surname or place name in occasional, unpublished contexts, but such uses are uncommon and not widely recognized in linguistic or encyclopedic references. Overall, estais is mainly a cautionary spelling variant rather than a distinct French term.