sprzedawali

Sprzedawali is the past tense form of the Polish imperfective verb sprzedawać, used with masculine personal subjects. It conveys that “they were selling” or “they used to sell,” indicating an ongoing or repeated action in the past. This form contrasts with sprzedali, the past tense of the perfective counterpart sprzedać, which means “they sold.”

In Polish, past tense forms agree with the subject in person, number, and gender. For sprzedawać, examples include sprzedawałem (I was selling, masculine singular), sprzedawałaś (you were selling, feminine singular), sprzedawali (they were selling, masculine plural), and sprzedawały (they were selling, feminine plural). Sprzedawali is therefore specifically the third-person plural masculine personal form.

Sprzedawać is an imperfective verb, emphasizing process, repetition, or duration in the past. Its perfective counterpart sprzedać denotes a completed act of selling. The choice between the imperfective and perfective aspects is central to Polish verb usage and affects the meaning of past-tense forms like sprzedawali versus sprzedali.

Examples illustrate typical contexts: W zeszłym tygodniu sprzedawali chleb na rynku. (They were selling bread at the market last week.) Sprzedawali przez kilka godzin, zanim zamknęli stoisko. (They were selling for several hours before they closed the stall.)

See also: sprzedawać, to sell (imperfective); sprzedać, to sell (perfective) for related forms and aspectual differences.