reía

Reía is the imperfect indicative form of the Spanish verb reír, meaning to laugh. It is used to describe past actions of laughing that were ongoing, habitual, or used to set the scene in narrative. The form can correspond to different subjects: yo reía, tú reías, él/ella reía, nosotros reíamos, vosotros reíais, ellos reían. Because the imperfect describes a background or repeated past action, reía often appears in descriptions like “cuando era joven, él siempre reía.”

Conjugation and related forms: reír is irregular in several tenses, but the imperfect indicative follows a regular pattern in its own right: reía, reías, reía, reíamos, reíais, reían. By contrast, the present tense is reí, ríes, ríe, reímos, reís, ríen, and the preterite is reí, reíste, rió, reímos, reísteis, rieron. The reflexive form se ríe and related compounds like reírse are used when laughing at oneself or in joyful reaction.

Etymology and pronunciation: reír derives from Latin ridēre (to laugh) and has undergone phonetic changes in Iberian Romance. The accent on í marks the stressed syllable and the pronunciation in standard Spanish is roughly /ɾeˈi.a/.

Usage notes: reía appears primarily in narrative past contexts. It can convey gentler or more habitual laughter than the simple preterite reí, and it often coexists with other forms of reír to describe nuanced past actions or states.