What is a preterite? I am very confused on this. Is a preterite something that describes past events?
For example, When I was younger, I liked visiting my grandparents house.
If so, what would be the preterite in the sentence? Would it be younger?
From the Wikipedia article on Preterite:
"The preterite (in American English also preterit) is a grammatical tense or verb form serving to denote events that took place or were completed in the past. In general, it combines the perfective aspect (event viewed as a single whole; not to be confused with the similarly named perfect) with the past tense, and may thus also be termed the perfective past."
In your sentence, the preterite is "liked ."
Yes, you are correct that a preterite is a grammatical term that refers to a verb tense used to describe past events. However, in the example sentence you provided, the word "younger" is not a preterite. Let me explain how to identify the preterite in a sentence.
The preterite is a specific form of a verb that indicates an action or event that took place in the past and is already completed. In English, the preterite tense is often formed by adding "-ed" or "-d" to the base form of the verb, as in "walked" or "talked." However, there are also irregular verbs that have unique preterite forms, such as "went" for the verb "go."
In your sentence, the verb in the preterite tense is "liked." The base form of the verb is "like," but in the past tense, it becomes "liked" to indicate that the action of liking occurred in the past. So, the preterite in your sentence is "liked," not "younger," which is an adjective describing a past period of your life.
To identify the preterite in a sentence, you can ask yourself which verb form is used to express an action or event that happened in the past and is already finished.