rían

Rían is the third-person plural imperfect indicative form of the Spanish verb reír, meaning "they were laughing" or "they used to laugh." The imperfect tense in Spanish expresses ongoing or habitual actions in the past rather than a completed event. The verb reír comes from Latin ridēre, and while reír is irregular in some tenses, its imperfect forms follow a regular pattern: reía, reías, reía, reíamos, reíais, reían. The form rían specifically corresponds to the ellos/ellas/ustedes subject in past continuous or habitual contexts.

Usage of rían is typical when describing past scenes in which laughter occurred as a continuing or repeated action. It contrasts with the preterite form rieron, which is used for a completed instance of laughter. In practice, rían appears in narratives or descriptions to convey a sense of ongoing amusement rather than a single moment of laughter. Examples include: "Ellos reían mucho cuando les contaron el chiste." and "En las reuniones, ellos reían a menudo durante las historias." Readers should note that the same stem reír is involved, but the tense and aspect change the nuance of the past event.