past historic tense

English

Noun

past historic tense

1. (grammar) A tense used in some languages (such as French and Italian) in narrative, and in spoken language primarily when reading narrative or in storytelling, for completed actions in the past or in speaking of the dead. It is semantically the same as the simple past in many languages, including English.

Translations

tense

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: preteriti (fi)
• French: passé simple (fr) m
• Italian: passato remoto (it) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Japanese: 単純過去 (tanjun-kako; for French)、遠過去 (en-kako; for Italian)
• Portuguese: pretérito perfeito (pt)
• Russian: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: pretérito (es)

Usage notes

In Southern Italy, the past historic is used more acceptably in spoken discourse.

See also

• Wikipedia article on the past historic tense