generaban

Generaban is the third-person plural imperfect indicative form of the Spanish verb generar, meaning that they were generating or they used to generate. The imperfect tense describes past actions that were ongoing, repeated, or customary, and it can also set background context in narration. Generar belongs to the -ar group, so its imperfect endings are -aba, -abas, -aba, -ábamos, -abais, -aban; therefore generaban corresponds to ellos/ellas/ustedes.

In usage, generaban signals that the action occurred over a span of time or was part of a habitual pattern in the past. It differs from the preterite form generaron, which would express a completed action: they generated (at a specific moment or within a closed time frame). The choice between imperfect and preterite affects tone and temporal perspective, particularly in storytelling, reporting, or describing processes.

Examples: Los científicos generaban datos a partir de mediciones repetidas. (The scientists were generating data from repeated measurements.) En aquella época, la empresa generaba ingresos constantes. (During that period, the company was generating steady income.) These sentences illustrate how the imperfect conveys ongoing activity rather than a single, completed event.

Etymology and related forms: generar proviene del latín generare, de genus, generis, relacionado con la idea de origen o creación. Variantes como genera, generan, o generará se usan en otros tiempos y modos para expresar procesos de producción, creación o propagación en distintos contextos.