adjective
- relating to or denoting a past tense of a verb
Usage: grammar
noun
- the simple past tense of a verb
Usage: grammar
Examples
- The preterite form of ‘walk’ is ‘walked’.
- In Spanish, the preterite tense indicates completed past actions.
- Students often confuse the preterite with the imperfect tense.
- The verb ‘go’ has an irregular preterite form: ‘went’.
- She used the preterite to describe what happened yesterday.
- The preterite is formed by adding -ed to regular verbs.