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Past or present tense for stories

dari Alkanadi, 2 September 2014

Pesan: 4

Bahasa: English

Alkanadi (Tunjukkan profil) 2 September 2014 08.51.44

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 (Tunjukkan profil) 2 September 2014 09.09.21

The both are correct.

nornen (Tunjukkan profil) 2 September 2014 13.29.40

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 (Tunjukkan profil) 2 September 2014 13.49.03

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

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