SafekipediaImperfective aspect
Adapted from Wikipedia · Adventurer experience
The imperfective (abbreviated NPFV, ipfv, or more ambiguously impv) is a grammatical aspect used to describe actions that are ongoing, habitual, repeated, or similar. It tells us how an action is happening, not just when it happened. Many languages have a general imperfective form. Others have special ways to show if something is happening right now, happening regularly, or happening again and again. These special forms are called progressive, habitual, and iterative. The imperfective is different from the perfective, which describes actions as complete and whole. Understanding these aspects helps us see the difference between actions that are still going on and actions that are done.
English
English does not have a general imperfective. The English progressive describes things happening right now, but it can also talk about the past, like "The rain was beating down." For past habits, we often use "used to," as in "I used to ski."
The progressive and imperfective act differently with stative verbs. Stative verbs, like know, do not use the progressive form (*I was knowing Ada), unlike in some other languages with an imperfective, such as French.
Indo-Aryan languages
Verbs in Hindi-Urdu (Hindustani) show their grammatical aspects. In Hindi-Urdu, verb forms use two parts: one for the aspect and one for the tense. There are two main imperfective aspects: the Habitual Aspect and the Progressive Aspect. These are made using participle forms with the verb होना honā (to be). Sometimes, other verbs like रहना rêhnā (to stay), आना ānā (to come), and जाना jānā (to go) are also used.
Some translations into English are only rough, and the exact meaning can be hard to capture. These verbs can be changed into participle forms and used with the three main aspects in Hindi-Urdu—habitual, progressive, and perfective—to make more detailed verb forms.
The perfective subaspect of the habitual aspect is also considered imperfective. These sub-aspects have detailed meanings that are hard to translate into English. Some translations might not even make sense in English.
| Simple Aspect | Imperfective Aspect | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Habitual Aspect | Progressive Aspect | |||||
| होना honā to be | होता होना hotā honā to happen | होता रहना hotā rêhnā to keep happening | होता जाना hotā jānā to keep on happening | होता आना hotā ānā to have been happening | हो रहा होना ho rahā honā to be happening | हो रहा रहना ho rahā rêhnā to stay happening |
| करना karnā to do | करता होना kartā honā to be doing | करता रहना kartā rêhnā to stay doing | करता जाना kartā jānā to keep doing | करता आना kartā ānā to have been doing | कर रहा होना kar rahā honā to be doing | कर रहा रहना kar rahā rêhnā to stay doing |
| मरना marnā to die | मरता होना martā honā to be dying | मरता रहना martā rêhnā to stay dying | मरता जाना martā jānā to keep dying | मरता आना martā ānā to have been dying | मरा रहा होना mar rahā honā to be dying | मर रहा रहना mar rahā rêhnā to stay dying |
| Imperfective Aspect | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Habitual Aspect | Progressive Aspect | |||||
| रहना (rêhnā) | जाना (jānā) | आना (ānā) | रहना (rêhnā) | |||
| Habitual subaspect | Perfective subaspect | Progressive subaspect | Habitual subaspect | Progressive subaspect | Progressive subaspect | Habitual subaspect |
| होता रहता होना hotā rêhtā honā to regularly keep happening | होता रहा होना hotā rahā honā to have been regularly happening | होता रह रहा होना hotā rêh rahā honā to stay being happening | होता जाता होना hotā jātā honā to continuously keep happening | होता जा रहा होना hotā jā rahā honā to continuously keep happening | होता आ रहा होना hotā ā rahā honā to have been continuously kept happening | हो रहा रहता होना ho rahā rêhtā honā to continuously stay happening progressively |
| करता रहता होना kartā rêhtā honā to regularly keep doing | करता रहा होना kartā rahā honā to have been regularly doing | करता रह रहा होना kartā rêh rahā honā to stay being doing | करता जाता होना kartā jātā honā to continuously keep doing | करता जा रहा होना kartā jā rahā honā to continuously keep doing | करता आ रहा होना kartā ā rahā honā to have been continuously kept doing | कर रहा रहता होना kar rahā rêhtā honā to continuously stay doing progressively |
| मरता रहता होना martā rêhtā honā to regularly keep dying | मरता रहा होना martā rahā honā to have been regularly dying | मरता रह रहा होना martā rêh rahā honā to stay being dying | मरता जाता होना martā jātā honā to continuously keep dying | मरता जा रहा होना martā jā rahā honā to continuously keep dying | मरता आ रहा होना martā ā rahā honā to have been continuously kept dying | मर रहा रहता होना mar rahā rêhtā honā to continuously stay dying progressively |
Slavic languages
For broader coverage of this topic, see Grammatical aspect in the Slavic languages.
In Slavic languages, verbs can show if an action is finished or still happening. Special parts of words called prefixes can change a verb to show the action is done, and suffixes can change it to show the action is continuing. The form that shows a continuing action is used for now, and the finished form is used for actions that will happen later. There is also a special way to talk about future continuing actions using helper words.: 84
Other languages
The imperfective aspect is often linked to past tense and is sometimes called the imperfect. In languages like Spanish and Portuguese, this aspect is only used for past actions. Other languages, such as Georgian and Bulgarian, have both general imperfectives and imperfects. Languages with special past imperfectives include Latin and Persian.
Perfective
Main article: Perfective aspect
The perfective aspect looks at an action as a whole, like a single event. For example, "John entered the room" shows the whole action of entering.
The imperfective aspect looks inside the action. It shows that the action is ongoing. For example, "John was reading when I entered" shows that John's reading was happening at that moment. It focuses on the middle of the action, not the whole action.
In English, we don’t have special verb forms for this, but we can see the difference. "Entered" is perfective because it shows the whole action. "Was reading" is imperfective because it shows the action in the middle of something else. The same event can be described in both ways, depending on what the speaker wants to emphasize.
Related articles
This article is a child-friendly adaptation of the Wikipedia article on Imperfective aspect, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.