pensava

Pensava is a verb form used in several Romance languages to express ongoing or habitual past action. It is the imperfect tense form of verbs meaning “to think” in its respective language, and it is not a stand-alone noun.

In Italian, pensava is the third-person singular imperfect of pensare, used to indicate that someone was thinking or used to think in the past, often to set background for a narrative or describe a past belief. For example, “Lui pensava che fosse impossibile” translates to “He was thinking that it was impossible.”

In Portuguese, pensava serves a similar function as the imperfect of pensar, describing ongoing past thinking or habitual past thoughts. For example, “Ela pensava em mudanças” means “She was thinking about changes.”

Etymology in a broad sense traces these forms to the Latin roots of the verbs pensare (Italian) and pensar (Portuguese), which in turn relate to the conceptual idea of weighing or considering thoughts. The shared root reflects the historical link between weighing a concept and thinking about it.

Because it is a common verb form, pensava appears across many contexts in Italian and Portuguese prose and speech, and, when capitalized, could function as a proper noun in names or fictional works, though such usage is not standard or widely attested. In other Romance languages, related forms exist with analogous meanings, such as pensaba in Spanish (imperfect of pensar) or pensées in other forms.

See also: penser, pensar, pensare.