soffrivano

Soffrivano is the third-person plural form of the Italian verb soffrire in the imperfect indicative tense, meaning "they were suffering" or "they suffered." It is commonly used to describe ongoing or habitual suffering in the past, rather than a single completed action.

Soffrire, from which soffrivano is derived, is a Romance verb with Latin origins (from pati, to endure or suffer). In the imperfect, soffrire follows the regular -ire conjugation pattern, producing forms such as soffrivo, soffrivi, soffriva, soffrivamo, soffrivate, and soffrivano. The imperfect conveys duration, repetition, or customary states in the past, and is often chosen in narrative or descriptive contexts to set scenes of hardship, pain, or endurance.

In usage, soffrivano can describe physical hardship, emotional distress, or social and economic suffering. For example: Durante la guerra soffrivano la fame e la mancanza di beni di prima necessità; Le famiglie soffrivano per le condizioni climatiche e la perdita dei raccolti. The choice between the imperfect (soffrivano) and other past tenses such as the passato prossimo or passato remoto depends on the narrator’s perspective on whether the suffering was ongoing, habitual, or presented as a sequence of events.

Soffrivano is not a noun or a proper noun; it is a verb form used within sentences to convey past endurance or prolonged pain. Related forms include soffrire (to suffer), soffro (I suffer), and other tenses that express different aspects or times of suffering.