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Past or present tense for stories

by Alkanadi, September 2, 2014

Messages: 4

Language: English

Alkanadi (User's profile) September 2, 2014, 8:51:44 AM

I noticed that some stories are told in the past tense, while others are told in the present tense. Which way is correct?

Example:
La heroo mortigis la drakon.
La heroo mortigas la drakon

sergejm (User's profile) September 2, 2014, 9:09:21 AM

The both are correct.

nornen (User's profile) September 2, 2014, 1:29:40 PM

I would say that this is mostly about style.
When you tell a story, which obviously happened in the past, in the present tense, it is called "historic present".
It is a literary means of throwing the reader directly into the action.

tommjames (User's profile) September 2, 2014, 1:49:03 PM

PMEG has some info on this usage of the present tense for the past, here (last paragraph).

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