Past historical

The past historical, called "preterite" in some grammars, [Wilson, Scaryln Norman. "Teach Yourself French". New York: David McKay Company, 1970. 46.] is a tense in Romance languages used to refer to events that occurred and were completed in the past. It is the form used to talk about the dead and is often used narratively in text to relate actions or events outside of dialogue.In Italian it is rarely used orally in the North, though in the South it can almost be used interchangeably with the simple past.In French, where the tense is normally termed the "past historic", it is hardly ever used orally. It is used as a narrative tense in (formal) educated writing to denote events that occurred or were completed in the past. In spoken French, this function is fulfilled by the perfect tense, but in educated writing, good style dictates that the perfect tense be replaced by the past historic. However, there is a tendency in modern literature written in a less formal style to replace the past historic with the perfect to give a more conversational feel.

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