Preterit

(Synop., § 130), a. [Written also preterite and præterite.] [Lat. præteritus, p. p. of præterire, to go or pass by, from præter, beyond, by, and ire, to go; præteritum (sc. tempus), in grammar, the past or preterit tense; Fr. préterit, Pr. preterit, Sp., Pg., & It. preterito.] Past;—applied to the tense in grammar which expresses an action or being perfectly past or finished, often that which is just past or completed, but without a specification of time, and which is called also the perfect tense; as, scripsi, I have written.

We say, “I have written a letter to my correspondent;” in which sentence the time is supposed to be not distant and not specified. But when the time is mentioned, we use the imperfect tense, so called; as, “I wrote to my correspondent yesterday.” In this use of the preterit or perfect tense, the English differs from the French, in which j'ai écrit hier is correct; but I have written yesterday would be very bad English.