hobbesw0w

[rose kestrel]

Please be patient

Our volunteers look into many questions every day; sometimes it takes them a little while to answer.

Pro tip: you can rename the thread title with `.tr <thread name>`

Make it descriptive, including relevant context, but also to the point. This way you improve your chances of getting a more relevant and specific answer.

[solid snow]

It is indeed sometimes possible to use the present tense to tell a story from the past as if it were happening now

If you were casually telling a story about what happened last week, you use the imparfait and/or the passé composé.

The use of the present tense in the video is really a stylistic choice

If a native can correct me, please by all means

Ok

I found this lil nugget

[opal vessel]

Yup, historic present.

[sleek vault]

Yeah. In my native Hungarian language sometimes people do it as well, choosing to tell a story in the present tense, I guess so that the listener feels more involved. But it is absolutely optional.

[sleek vault]

I will have a look at it, thx

[solid snow]

I'm too sleep drunk to really reflect on it but i think this is also a thing in my native language. I can imagine telling a campfire story or at a bartable with some friends, it sounds more 'vivid' and expressive

[sleek vault]

Yea that's what I meant, understood

[white solar]

it’s a thing in english, too. it’s called the historical present, or less commonly the dramatic present. you’ll hear it used from time to time in news reports to heighten the story’s dramatic tension (also, it’s pretty commonly used by the storytellers featured on drunk history, if you want to find an example)