parlaven

Parlaven is the imperfect indicative form of parlar, the Catalan verb meaning to speak. It translates as “they spoke” or “they were speaking” in English.

Parlar is an -ar verb in Catalan. The imperfect third-person plural ending is -aven, so parlaven is formed from the stem parl- plus -aven. This form is part of the standard Catalan imperfect conjugation and is cognate with other Romance verbs meaning to speak, such as Spanish hablar, French parler, and Italian parlare, all ultimately traced to Latin parlāre.

In usage, parlaven denotes past actions that were ongoing, habitual, or provide background in a narrative. It is commonly used with time expressions or adverbs of frequency to describe what used to happen regularly or over a period in the past.

Examples: “Quan érem joves, parlaven gairebé cada dia.” and “Els estudiants parlaven entre ells mentre el professor entrava.” In both examples, the subject pronoun is often omitted in Catalan, with parlaven conveying the plural past action.

Notes: Parlaven is specific to Catalan; other languages use different imperfect forms for the same root verb.