English Dictionary
Definition the historic present in British English
the historic present noun
noun
1
the use of present tenses to refer to past time, especially when you want to make a narrative sound more exciting. For example, in sentence 'The next day he sees the girl again, but this time he asks her if she'd like to go to the fairground', the verbs 'see' and 'ask' are in the historic present (present simple).
Synonyms and related words
