preterit

American  

[pret-er-it] / ˈprɛt ər ɪt /

Or preterite

noun

Grammar.

1. in English, the simple past, or an instance or form of a specific verb in the simple past, such as ate or walked.

2. a verb tense, construction, or form in another language with a meaning similar to that of the simple past in English.

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adjective

1. Grammar. designating a verb tense expressing a past action or state.

2. Archaic. bygone; past.

Other Word Forms

• preteritness
  noun

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Etymology

Origin of preterit

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English, from Latin praeteritus “past, gone by,” past participle of praeterīre “to go by,” from praeter- preter- + īre “to go”; as tense name, from Latin (tempus) praeteritum “(time) past”

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

preterit

The mountaineers who seem to have retained the older forms of the tongue use the itz, not only in the preterit, but in the present and future.

From The Philosophic Grammar of American Languages, as Set Forth by Wilhelm von Humboldt With the Translation of an Unpublished Memoir by Him on the American Verb by Daniel Garrison Brinton

Harmony is restored if you make out of the preterit a pluperfect, and read the passage thus:—When Noah was five hundred years old he had begotten Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

From Commentary on Genesis, Vol. II Luther on Sin and the Flood by John Nicholas Lenker

The preterit parfyte, as well of the fyrst as of the seconde conjugation hath dyvers termynations, but there is four speciall, that is to say in us, in is, in ins and in ay.

From An Introductorie for to Lerne to Read, To Pronounce, and to Speke French Trewly by Giles Du Wés

Death and destruction are suitable ideas to express the past, and some languages employ negative particles as signs of the preterit.

From The Philosophic Grammar of American Languages, as Set Forth by Wilhelm von Humboldt With the Translation of an Unpublished Memoir by Him on the American Verb by Daniel Garrison Brinton

Yo is the sign of the present, ni of the preterit, di is the pronoun; the other two words, to sin and to be: “I was sinning.”

From The Philosophic Grammar of American Languages, as Set Forth by Wilhelm von Humboldt With the Translation of an Unpublished Memoir by Him on the American Verb by Daniel Garrison Brinton

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