predicabais

Predicabais is a form of the Spanish verb predicar. It is the imperfect indicative, second-person plural, used with the vosotros form. In English, it is typically rendered as "you all were preaching" or "you all used to preach." The imperfect tense describes past actions that were ongoing or habitual.

Origin and meaning: Predicar comes from Latin praedicare, meaning “to proclaim beforehand” or “to declare publicly.” In contemporary Spanish, predicar primarily means to preach in a religious sense or to advocate, set forth, or profess a belief or message. The form predicabais retains that sense when used with vosotros.

Usage and dialect: Predicabais is common in Spain and in literature that uses the vosotros pronoun. In most Latin American varieties, where vosotros is not standard, the corresponding meaning is conveyed with ustedes predicaban, the third-person plural imperfect. Although predicabais remains correct in regions that maintain the vosotros form, it is less frequent in modern casual speech outside Spain.

Formation: The form is created by taking the infinitive predicar, removing the -ar, and adding the imperfect vosotros ending -abais. The accent is placed on the penultimate syllable, yielding predicabais.

Example: Predicabais que la asamblea sería exitosa, pero nadie os escuchaba. Translation: You all were preaching that the assembly would be successful, but no one was listening to you.