étudiais

Étudiais is a verb form in the French language. Specifically, it is the first-person singular imperfect indicative tense of the verb étudier. This tense is used to describe ongoing actions, habitual actions, or states of being in the past. Therefore, "j'étudiais" translates to "I was studying" or "I used to study" in English.

The imperfect tense in French, unlike the English simple past, carries a sense of continuity or duration. When someone says "j'étudiais," they are not just stating a completed action, but rather painting a picture of a past situation. For instance, "Quand j'étais étudiant, j'étudiais beaucoup" means "When I was a student, I studied a lot," implying a habitual or continuous activity during that period.

The imperfect tense is also used to describe background information or setting a scene in a narrative. "Il faisait beau et j'étudiais tranquillement dans le parc" translates to "The weather was nice and I was calmly studying in the park," setting a peaceful scene. The conjugation of étudier in the imperfect follows the regular -er verb pattern for this tense, with the stem étudi- and the ending -ais for the first-person singular.