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This article is about the grammatical term. To see the article relating to eschatology and the Book of Revelation, see Preterism.

The preterite (abbreviated pret or prt; also praeterite, in American English also preterit, simple past, past indicative, or past historic) is the grammatical tense expressing actions that took place in the past.

Preterites in Germanic languages

English

English's preterite — usually called its simple past or, somewhat loosely, its past-tense form — is generally formed by adding -ed or -d to the verb's plain form (bare infinitive), sometimes with some spelling modifications:

• He planted corn and oats.
• They studied grammar.

A number of English verbs form their preterites irregularly, often by changing an interior vowel:

• She went to the cinema. (Preterite tense of "go"; uses a completely different verb - the Anglo-Saxon 'wendan' from where we get 'to wend'.)
• I ate breakfast late this morning. (Preterite tense of "eat".)
• He ran to the store. (Preterite tense of "run".)

With the exception of "to be" and auxiliary and modal verbs, interrogative and negative clauses do not use their main verb's preterites; if their declarative or positive counterpart does not use any auxiliary or modal verb, then the auxiliary verb did (the preterite of do) is inserted and the main verb appears in its plain form, as an infinitive:

• Was she busy today?
• He was not there.
• Could she play the piano when she was ten?
• The editor had not read the book yet.
• Did he plant corn and oats?
• She did not go to the cinema.

German

In German, the Präteritum is used for past actions. (Older grammar books sometimes call it the "imperfect", an unsuitable borrowing from Latin terminology.) In South Germany, Austria and Switzerland, it is mostly used solely in writing, for example in stories. Use in speech is regarded as snobbish and thus very uncommon. South German dialects, such as the Bavarian dialect, as well as Yiddish, and Swiss German have no preterite, but only perfect constructs.

In speech and informal writing, the Perfekt is used (e.g., Ich habe dies und das gesagt. (I said this and that)).

However, in the colloquial language of North Germany, there is still a very important difference between the preterite and the perfect, and both tenses are consequently very common. The preterite is used for past actions when the focus is on the action, whilst the perfect is used for past actions when the focus is on the present state of the subject because of a previous action. This corresponds to the English usage of the preterite and the perfect.

• Preterite: "Heute früh kam mein Freund." (My friend came early in the morning, and he is being talked about strictly in the past)
• Perfect: "Heute früh ist mein Freund gekommen." (My friend came early in the morning, but he is being talked about in the present)

Preterites in Romance languages

Latin

In Latin, the perfect tense most commonly functions as the preterite, and refers to an action completed in the past. If the past action were not completed, one would use the imperfect tense. The perfect tense in Latin also functions in other circumstances as a present perfect tense.

Typical conjugation:

Dūxī can be translated as (preterite) "I led," "I did lead" or (present perfect) "I have led."

French

In French, the preterite is known as le passé simple ("the simple past"). As in Spanish, it is a past tense that indicates an action taken once in the past that was completed at some point in the past (translated: "verbed"). This is as opposed to the imperfect tense (l'imparfait), used in expressing repeated, continuous, or habitual past actions (often corresponding to English's past continuous was/were <verb>ing). In the oral language, the compound tense known as le passé composé ("the compound past") began to compete with it since the 12th century AD, and since replaced it almost entirely.^[1] French simple past is mostly used in a narrative way to tell stories and describe successive actions. Novelists use it very commonly; it brings more suspense, as the sentence can be short without any time reference needed. In the oral language, the simple past is rarely used except with story telling. Therefore, it would be atypical to hear it in a standard discussion.

Typical conjugations:

Romanian

In Romanian, the preterite is known as perfectul simplu (literally, the simple past or simple perfect). The preterite indicates a past accomplished action (translated: "verbed"), however this tense is not frequent in the official language and not frequent in the standard speech (not used in Republic of Moldova and not used in the Romanian regions of Transylvania, Muntenia and Moldova). The general tendency is to use the compound past (perfectul compus) to express a past action that is perceived as completed at the moment of speaking. Simple past is still actively used in current speech in the southwestern part of Romania, especially in Oltenia, but also in Banat mostly in rural areas. Usage of the preterite is very frequent in written narrative discourse, the simple past of the speech verbs being generally after a dialogue line in narration:

• Aici avem o crimă!, zise poliţistul. This is murder! said the policeman.

When used in everyday speech in standard Romanian, the preterite indicates an action completed recently:

• Tocmai îl auzii pe George la radio. I have just heard George on the radio.

The second person is often used in questions about finishing an action in progress which is supposed to be over, giving the question a more informal tone:

• Gata, citirăţi? Are you done, have you read [the texts]?

The forms of the simple perfect are made of an unstressed stem of the infinitive, a stressed suffix that is different in each group of verbs, and the endings -i, -şi, -Ø, -răm, -răţi, -ră^[2], which are the same for all the verbs:

Italian

In Italian, the preterite is called passato remoto (literally "remote past"). It is a past tense that indicates an action taken once and completed far in the past (mangiai, "I ate"). This is opposed to the imperfetto tense, which refers to a repeated, continuous, or habitual past action (mangiavo, "I was eating" or "I used to eat") and to the passato prossimo (literally "close past"), which refers to an action completed recently (ho mangiato, "I have eaten").

Colloquially, the use of passato remoto increases going from North to South of Italy. While Northern speakers tend to use passato prossimo in any perfective situation, Southern ones tend to use passato remoto even for recent events.

Typical conjugations:

*Many -ere verbs in Italian have stem alternations in the 1st person singular, 3rd person singular and 3rd person plural. Some verbs (with d/t in their stem, including credere) also have endings -etti (1st person singular), -ette (3rd person singular), and -ettero (3rd person plural).

Portuguese

In Portuguese, the preterite is the pretérito perfeito. As in other Romance Languages, it denotes an isolated event initiated in the past, and completed before the present. It contrasts with the pretérito imperfeito (imperfect) and with the pretérito perfeito composto (present perfect).

Typical conjugations:

¹ Without the acute accent in Brazilian Portuguese.

Spanish

In Spanish, the preterite (pretérito) is a verb tense that indicates that an action taken once in the past was completed at a specific point in time in the past. Usually, a definite start time or end time for the action is stated. This is opposed to the imperfect tense, which refers to any repeated, continuous, or habitual past action. Thus, "I ran five miles yesterday" would use the first-person preterite form of ran, corrí, whereas "I ran five miles every morning" would use the first-person imperfect tense form, corría. This distinction is actually one of perfective vs. imperfective aspect.

The special conjugations for the "yo" form of the preterite are (the accent mark goes over the 'e'): -gar verbs: -gue (jugar>jugué) -car verbs: -que (buscar>busqué) -zar verbs: -ce (almorzar>almorcé)

In most Spanish Mainland Spanish and, to a lesser extent, Mexican Spanish, there is still a strong distinction between the preterite and the present perfect. As the preterite denotes an action that began and ended in the past, while the present perfect denotes an action that began in the past and is still going on, thus:

• Comí todo el día. (I ate all day long.)
• He comido todo el día (I have been eating all day.)

In most other variants of Spanish, such as in the Americas and in the Canary Islands, this distinction has tended to fade, with the preterite being used even for actions in the immediate pre-present with continuing relevance. Coincidentally, British Mainland English present perfect forms are sometimes replaced with simple pasts by Irish and North American English speakers, an exactly parallel development.

Typical conjugations:

Preterites in Semitic Languages

Semitic languages, including Hebrew and the Akkadian language feature the preterite. It is used to describe past or present events, and contrasts with other, more temporally specific tenses.

See also

• Aorist
• Grammatical tense
• Grammatical aspect
• Wiktionary list of irregular verbs

Notes