videbamus

Videbamus is the first-person plural imperfect indicative active form of the Latin verb videre, meaning "to see." It translates roughly as "we were seeing" or "we used to see." The imperfect tense in Latin expresses ongoing or repeated action in the past. Videbamus belongs to the 2nd conjugation (vidēre) and is formed from the stem vide- plus the imperfect marker ba- and the personal ending -mus. The principal parts of videre are video, videre, vidi, visum, from which videbamus is derived. In full form the 1st person plural imperfect is often written as videbāmus (the macron marks a long vowel); in unaccented text it appears as videbamus.

The imperfect forms for the other persons are videbam, videbās, videbat, videbātis, videbant, illustrating a regular -ba- pattern across the paradigm: videbam, videbās, videbat, videbāmus, videbātis, videbant. This pattern is characteristic of the imperfect of 2nd-conjugation verbs in Latin. The sense remains the same: ongoing or habitual past action.

Usage and nuance: videbamus is commonly found in classical Latin prose and poetry to set scenes or describe past observations in progress. Translations into English typically render it as "we were seeing" or "we used to see," depending on context. Example: Dum in silvā ambulābāmus, aves videbāmus. ("While we were walking in the forest, we could see birds.")