SafekipediaImperfective aspect
Adapted from Wikipedia · Discoverer 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, whether they happen in the past, present, or future. It helps us understand how an action is happening, not just when it happened. Many languages have a general imperfective form, while 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, like something that was finished. 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 is used to describe events that are happening right now, but it can also be used to talk about the past, like "The rain was beating down." For habits in the past, we often use "used to," as in "I used to ski."
The progressive and imperfective behave differently with stative verbs. Stative verbs, like know, do not use the progressive form (*I was knowing Ada), unlike in some other languages that have an imperfective, such as French.
Indo-Aryan languages
Verbs in Hindi-Urdu (Hindustani) clearly show their grammatical aspects. In Hindi-Urdu, verb forms are made using two parts: one that shows the aspect and another that shows the tense. There are two main imperfective aspects in Hindi-Urdu: the Habitual Aspect and the Progressive Aspect. These are created by 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) can also be used.
Some translations into English are only approximate, and the exact meaning can be hard to capture. These verbs can also be changed into their participle forms and used with the three main aspects in Hindi-Urdu—habitual, progressive, and perfective—creating more detailed verb forms.
The perfective subaspect of the habitual aspect is also considered imperfective. These sub-aspects have very 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 completed or still going on. Special word parts called prefixes can change a verb to show the action is finished, and suffixes can change it to show the action is ongoing. The form that shows an ongoing action is used for the present time, and the finished form is used for actions that will happen later. There is also a special way to talk about future ongoing actions using helper words.: 84
Other languages
The imperfective aspect can be connected to past tense, and is often called the imperfect. In languages like Spanish and Portuguese, this happens because the imperfective aspect is only used in the past. Other languages, such as Georgian and Bulgarian, have both general imperfectives and imperfects. Languages with distinct past imperfectives also include Latin and Persian.
Perfective
Main article: Perfective aspect
The perfective aspect looks at an action as a whole, like a single event without looking inside it. For example, "John entered the room" shows the whole action of entering without any details about what happened during the entry.
The imperfective aspect, on the other hand, looks inside the action. It shows that the action is ongoing or happening in the middle of something. For example, "John was reading when I entered" shows that John's reading was happening while I entered. It focuses on the middle part of the reading, not the whole action of reading.
In English, we don’t have these special verb forms, but we can see the difference. "Entered" is perfective because it shows the whole action. "Was reading" is imperfective because it shows the action happening 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.