Preterite

The Preterite (also praeterite, American English also preterit) is the grammatical tense expressing actions which took place in the past. In English, the term 'preterite' is often superseded by 'simple past' or 'past simple', although it is still often heard in its adjectival form (for instance: The preterite form of 'to slay' is 'slew'.).

• "She went to the cinema."

In German, the Präteritum is used for past actions. In South Germany, Austria and Switzerland, it is mostly used solely in writing, for example in stories; this is, apart from modal verbs and verbs haben (to have) and sein (to be), which are commonly used in the preterite in speech as well.

• Es war einmal ein kleines Mädchen, das hieß Rotkäppchen. (There was once a small girl, who was called Little Red Riding Hood.)

In speech and informal writing, Perfekt is used (eg, Ich habe das und das gesagt. (I said this and that)).

However, in the colloquial language of North Germany and in Standard German, there is still a very important difference between the preterite and the perfect, and both tenses are consequently very common. The preterite is used for past actions when the focus is on the action, whilst the perfect is used for past actions when the focus is on the result of the action. This corresponds to the English usage of the preterite and the present perfect.

• "Heute früh kam mein Freund" (My friend came early in the morning, but perhaps he has already gone)
• "Heute früh ist mein Freund gekommen" (he is still here)

The preterite is a verb tense used in Spanish that indicates an action taken once in the past and ending at a specific time. This is as opposed to the Imperfect, which refers to any repeated or continuous past action. So, "I ran five miles yesterday" would use the first person preterite form of ran, corrí whereas "I ran five miles every morning" would use the first person imperfect form, corría.

Conjugation:

	hablar	comer	insistir
yo	hablé	comí	insistí
tú	hablaste	comiste	insististe
él	habló	comió	insistió
nosotros	hablamos	comemos	insistimos
ellos	hablaron	comieron	insistieron

See also: pluperfect (past perfect), past tense, present tense, future tense, grammatical aspect, .