preterite

English

Alternative forms

• preterit (US)
• praeterite
• præterite (archaic)

Etymology

Recorded since 1340, from Old French preterit (13th century), from Latin praeteritum (as in tempus praeteritum "time past"), the past participle of praeterire "to go by, go past", itself from praeter "beyond, before, above, more than" (comparative of prae "before") + itum (the past participle of ire "to go").

Pronunciation

• IPA: /pɹɛtəɹət/, /pɹɛtəɹɪt/, X-SAMPA: /pr\Et@r\@t/, /pr\Et@r\It/

Adjective

preterite (not comparable)

1. (grammar, of a tense) showing an action at a determined moment in the past.
2. Belonging wholly to the past; passed by.
   • Lowell

     Things and persons as thoroughly preterite as Romulus or Numa.

Translations

showing an action at a determined moment in the past

• Catalan: pretèrit (ca)
• Dutch: in de verleden tijd, in het preteritum
• Japanese: (adnominal) 過去の (ja) (かこの, kako no), 過去時制の (ja) (かこじせいの, kako-jisei no); (for Spanish grammar) 点過去の (ja) (てんかこの, ten-kako no)
• Polish: przeszły (pl) m

• Portuguese: pretérito (pt) m
• Russian: претерит (ru) (pretérit) m, прошедшее повествовательное (ru) (prošédšeje povestvovátel'noje) n
• Spanish: pretérito (es)

Noun

preterite (plural preterites)

1. (grammar) The preterite tense, simple past tense: the grammatical tense that determines the specific initiation or termination of an action in the past.

Related terms

• preterition
• preteritive

Translations

preterite tense; simple past

• Catalan: pretèrit (ca) m
• Danish: præteritum (da), datid (da)
• Dutch: verleden tijd, preteritum n
• German: Präteritum (de) n
• Japanese: 過去 (ja) (かこ, kako), 過去時制 (ja) (かこじせい, kako-jisei)
• Jèrriais: sîmpl'ye pâssé m

• Latin: praeteritum (la) n
• Polish: czas przeszły m
• Portuguese: pretérito (pt) m
• Serbo-Croatian: preterit (sh) m
• Spanish: preterito (es)
• Swedish: preteritum (sv) n

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Mandarin: 過去時, 过去时 (guoqushi)
• French: prétérit
• Greek: αόριστος (aóristos)
• Interlingua: preterite

• Italian: preterito
• Korean: 과거 시제
• Latin: praeteritum, tempus praeteritum
• Portuguese: preterito