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.

---

adjective

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

2. Archaic. bygone; past.

Other Word Forms

• preteritness
  noun

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”

Example Sentences

In the preterit add Ta to the root.

From Diego Collado's Grammar of the Japanese Language by Spear, Richard L.

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From The Philosophic Grammar of American Languages, as Set Forth by Wilhelm von Humboldt With the Translation of an Unpublished Memoir by Him on the American Verb by Brinton, Daniel Garrison

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From The Philosophic Grammar of American Languages, as Set Forth by Wilhelm von Humboldt With the Translation of an Unpublished Memoir by Him on the American Verb by Brinton, Daniel Garrison

The preterit imparfyte, whiche may serve lykewyse for the present, after the olde grammer.

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

In the Tamanaca the present ends in a, the preterit in e, the future in c.

From The Philosophic Grammar of American Languages, as Set Forth by Wilhelm von Humboldt With the Translation of an Unpublished Memoir by Him on the American Verb by Brinton, Daniel Garrison