pactaban

Pactaban is the third-person plural imperfect indicative form of the Spanish verb pactar, meaning to agree or to make a pact. It denotes a past action of forming an agreement, often conveying habitual or ongoing activity rather than a single completed event. In sentences, pactaban can serve as the main verb: for example, los negociadores pactaban una tregua, meaning the negotiators were agreeing on a truce.

Etymology and meaning: Pactar derives from Latin pactum, meaning an agreement, and shares its root with related words such as pacto. The sense of reaching an accord is central to its meaning.

Usage: The imperfect tense expresses past actions without specifying their completion, in contrast with the preterite pactaron, which would emphasize a completed agreement. Pactaban is therefore used to describe negotiations or arrangements that were in progress, repeated, or established as a backdrop in past narratives.

Conjugation: In the imperfect indicative, the forms are pactaba, pactabas, pactaba, pactábamos, pactabais, pactaban.

Example sentence: Durante años, las partes pactaban condiciones que beneficiaban a ambos lados.

See also: pactar, pacto, acuerdos.