estudava

Estudava is a verb form in Portuguese that corresponds to the imperfect indicative of the verb estudar, meaning to study. It is used to talk about past actions that were ongoing, habitual, or background in nature, without indicating a completed endpoint. The form can describe what someone was doing at a certain time or repeated past actions.

Conjugation and usage notes: in the imperfect tense, the typical forms are eu estudava, tu estudavas, ele/ela estudava, nós estudávamos, vós estudáveis, eles estudavam. In modern Brazilian Portuguese, the second-person forms are less common in everyday speech, with the plural often rendered as você/vocês followed by the third-person form, as in você estudava or vocês estudavam.

Origin: the verb estudar comes from Latin roots such as studere and studium, reflecting the idea of applying oneself to learning with zeal or persistence. The imperfect form estudava preserves that sense of ongoing or habitual effort in the past.

Examples:

- Quando era criança, eu estudava todas as noites.

- Ela estudava medicina há anos antes de decidir outra carreira.

Usage context: estudava is frequently found in narratives, descriptions, and historical accounts to set the scene or describe repeated past activities. It contrasts with estuda (present) or estudou (preterite/past simple) to convey different temporal nuances about learning or study.