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Definition of Past tense
1. Noun. A verb tense that expresses actions or states in the past.
Definition of Past tense
1. Noun. (grammar) '''Past tense''' is the form of language used to refer to an event, transaction, or occurrence that did happen or has happened, or an object that existed, at a point in time before now. Compare with present tense, which refers to an event, transaction or occurrence which is happening now (or at the present time), or an object that currently exists; or with future tense, which refers to an event, transaction or occurrence that has not yet happened, is expected to happen in the future, or might never happen. ¹
¹ Source: wiktionary.com
Lexicographical Neighbors of Past Tense
Literary usage of Past tense
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. A Grammar of the German Language: Designed for a Thoro and Practical Study by George Oliver Curme (1922)
"Such constructions are elliptical, some verb in a past tense form being understood:
Und ... The past tense forms of the subjunctive are nowhere in indirect ..."
2. The Classical World by Classical Association of the Atlantic States (1916)
"feet subjunctive of result, dependent upon a past tense, a secondary tense; and
Professor Kent says (page 10) that it is both primary and secondary. ..."
3. English Grammar: The English Language in Its Elements and Forms ; with a by William Chauncey Fowler (1855)
"FORMS FOR THE past tense. § 327. The past tense, or Preterit, denotes past time.
... The progressive form is expressed by the past tense of the substantive ..."
4. The Century Handbook of Writing by Garland Greever, Easley Stephen Jones (1922)
"The bell [past tense of ring] so furiously that we [past tense of begin] to think
... No one knows how he [past tense of do] it. 7. The wind [past tense of ..."
5. New Englander and Yale Review by Edward Royall Tyler, William Lathrop Kingsley, George Park Fisher, Timothy Dwight (1892)
"The radical vowel a in this conjugation is lengthened or doubled in the past tense.
Conjug. V. includes verbs which the present tense, and ie or i in the ..."
6. An Advanced English Grammar: With Exercises by George Lyman Kittredge, Frank Edgar Farley (1913)
"Write ten sentences in each of which a -weak (or regular) verb is used in the
past tense; ten, in each of which a strong (or-irregular) verb is used in the ..."
7. An Advanced English Grammar: With Exercises by George Lyman Kittredge, Frank Edgar Farley (1913)
"Write ten sentences in each of which a weak (or regular) verb is used in the past
tense; ten, in each of which a strong (or irregular) verb is used in the ..."
8. A Grammar of the Homeric Dialect by David Binning Monro (1891)
"past tense by 'Assimilation.' When a past tense relating to an event which has
not happened is followed by a Subordinate Clause, the Verb of the Subordinate ..."
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