llegaba

Llegaba is the imperfect indicative form of the Spanish verb llegar, meaning to arrive or to reach. It is used for the first- or third-person singular subjects (yo llegaba and él/ella/usted llegaba) and follows the regular -ar verb endings in the imperfect tense. The corresponding plural forms are llegábamos, llegabais, and llegaban. In this tense, the verb conveys ongoing or repeated past actions rather than a completed event.

In its imperfect usage, llegar describes actions without a definite end in the past, general habits, or background information in narration. It can indicate that someone was arriving at a place over a period of time, or that an action routinely occurred in the past. It is also used with phrases like a time or location, and in constructions such as llegar a + infinitive to express gradual attainment or realization (for example, llegaba a entender means “I was coming to understand”). The form may appear with adverbs of time or with relative clauses to set the past scene.

Examples of use include: “Yo llegaba a las cinco cada día” (I would arrive at five o’clock every day) or “Cuando era niño, llegaba tarde a la escuela” (When I was a child, I used to arrive late at school). The imperfect tone contrasts with the preterite llegué, which marks a completed arrival, and with other imperfect forms to describe ongoing states or habitual actions.

See also: llegar, Spanish verb conjugation, imperfect tense.