transcurre

Transcurre is the third-person singular present indicative form of the Spanish verb transcurrir. It denotes the passage or unfolding of time and events, and is commonly used to describe when something happens or how a period develops. For example, “El tiempo transcurre sin cambios” or “La historia transcurre en la década de 1980.”

Etymology and sense: the verb comes from Latin transcurrere, formed by trans- “across” and currere “to run.” The basic sense is “to run across” and, more broadly, “to pass by” in time or in events. In contemporary Spanish, transcurrir appears in narrative and descriptive contexts and is closely related to the noun transcurso, meaning the course or sequence of events.

Grammar and usage: transcurre belongs to a regular -ir verb pattern in many forms, with conjugations such as transcurro, transcurres, transcurre, transcurrimos, transcurrís, transcurren in the present tense. The preterite forms are transcurrió and transcurrieron; the imperfect forms are transcurría and transcurrían; the gerund is transcurriendo and the past participle is transcurrido. It is typically used with a subject that refers to time, events, or a narrative, for example, “La conversación transcurrió sin incidentes.”

In literary and journalistic usage, transcurrir describes the progression of time within a story or the sequence of events. The phrase transcurrir a lo largo de or transcurrir entre can indicate a span of time or a development path, as in “La década transcurre entre conflictos y cambios sociales.”

Related terms include transcurso and tiempo.