giocavate

Giocavate is the second-person plural imperfect indicative form of the Italian verb giocare, meaning you (all) were playing or you (all) used to play. It is used to describe ongoing or habitual actions in the past, with voi as the implied subject.

Grammar and origin: Giocare is a regular -are verb, and its imperfect endings are -avo, -avi, -ava, -avamo, -avate, -avano. Therefore, giocavate follows the pattern: gio- ca- va- te, with the stress on the syllable ca, resulting in [dʒoˈka.va.te]. The form is employed in narrative and descriptive past contexts.

Usage: The imperfect form giocavate commonly conveys that the activity of playing was continuous or repeated in the past, not completed. It can describe routines, background actions, or scenes in storytelling. It often appears with time markers or contexts such as da bambini, spesso, ogni giorno, or mentre.

Examples:

- Da bambini, voi giocavate spesso nel parco. (As children, you all often played in the park.)

- Quando è arrivato, voi giocavate a calcio da ore. (When he arrived, you all had been playing soccer for hours.)

- In quel periodo, voi giocavate a nascondino ogni pomeriggio. (During that period, you all used to play hide-and-seek every afternoon.)

See also: other imperfect forms of giocare (gio-cavo, giocavi, giocava, giocavamo, giocavate, giocavano) and related tenses in Italian, such as the present giocare, the passato prossimo giocato, and the passato remoto giocavate (alternative formal narrative past).