Do you know what the perfect aspect is? This article will provide you with all of the information you need on perfect tenses, including its definition, usage, example sentences, and more!
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Kevin
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November 25, 2021
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Common Questions
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What is the perfect aspect?
According to Walden, there are many different forms of verbs in the English language:
- Gerund tense or gerund phrase
- Present progressive tense
- Simple future tense
- Simple present tense
- Present perfect progressive/continuous tense
- Perfect passive tense
- Conditional perfect progressive tense
- Imperfect tense
- Future perfect progressive tense
- Bare infinitive tense
- Imperative tense
- Future progressive tense
- Conditional tense
- Past participle tense
- Conditional perfect tense
- Indicative tense
- Simple past tense
- Subjunctive tense
- Past progressive/continuous tense
- Present perfect tense
- Conditional progressive tense
- Past perfect progressive tense
- Past perfect tense
- Future perfect tense
- Simple conditional tense
- Present participle tense
- To-infinitive tense
Today we will explore the perfect tense. According to Grammar Monster, the perfect tense is a verb tense used to describe completed actions, and is sometimes called the complete aspect of a verb. The perfect verb tenses include the past perfect tense, the present perfect tense, and the future perfect tense. The perfect tenses are formed using the auxiliary verb “to have” and the past participle of the main verb. In American English grammar, this can be used for a time reference to a completed action, a future action, and the resulting state of an action. There are many different verb forms and aspects like the simple aspect, perfect progressive aspect, preterite, past tense of the verb, and other tense of verbs in English, British English, Spanish and more.
What are examples of the perfect tense?
Below you will find examples of present perfect tense, the past perfect tense, and the future perfect form of a verb used in the following ways from Your Dictionary and Soft Schools:
- Â She stayed up all night because she had received bad news.
- Â She wished she had seen her friend.
- Â I have put the money in the machine. (present perfect)
- Â The class has been outside for recess. (present perfect)
- Â He had never played football until last week.
- Â She had established her company before 2008.
- Â Anthony had met Ryan before you introduced him to us at the party.
- Â I had watched almost all of the show before the power went off. (past perfect)
- Â I wished I had told the truth.
- Â The boss had said it would be a long meeting.
- Â I had just gone outside when it started to rain.Â
- Â You had studied Italian before you moved to Rome.
- Â She had just left the scene when the ambulance arrived.
- Â The usher asked if we had purchased our tickets.
- Â Will had won the race every year until this year. (past perfect)
- Â He had just put the dog on the leash when we got there.
- Â By the time I am 8, I will have saved over $,000. (future perfect)
- Â Jeff tried to hide the vase because he had broken it. (past perfect)
- Â My neighbor asked if we had seen her dog.
- Â The teacher asked if we had studied for the exam.
- Â Â By the time I get my paycheck, my bank account will have dipped into the negative (future perfect)
- Â They had gotten engaged before last year.
- Â The boy wished he had asked another question.
- Â My sister has taken martial arts lessons for six years. (present perfect)
- Â They lost many of the games because they had not practiced enough.
- Â We wished we had purchased the winning ticket.
- Â By the time the show is over, Marie will have danced for 40 minutes. (future perfect)
- Â I had fallen asleep before eight o’clock.
- Â I had finished my homework before mom called me for dinner. (past perfect)
- Â Do you think the lunchroom will have cooked enough pizza for all of us? (future perfect)
- Â The bus had just left when we got to the stop.
What are other grammar terms?
There are many different literary and grammatical techniques and devices that you might see when you are reading prose or poetry. It is important to recognize these terms because they are always used for some purpose. Knowing these devices can help readers understand the author’s deeper meaning and why they are using such a device. Take a look at the below list of grammatical devices from OED and see how many you know! Then try researching ones that are unfamiliar to you.Â
- non-finite
- attributive
- protasis
- present participle
- article
- possessive pronoun
- third-person
- progressive
- instrumental
- genitive
- agent noun
- singular
- direct question
- appositive
- predicative
- base form
- simple
- participle | past participle | present participle
- prefix
- superlative
- verb (v.)
- anaphoric
- periphrasis | periphrastic
- imperative (imper.)
- mood
- intensifier
- dual
- mass noun
- passive infinitive
- indicative
- perfect
- impersonal (impers.)
- indirect question
- similative
- subjective
- indirect object
- copular verb | copula
- subject
- possessive adjective
- gender
- gerund
- past tense
- definite article
- verbal noun
- comparative
- passive
- finite
- accusative
- cataphoric
- masculine
- number
- parenthetical | parenthetically
- absolute (absol.)
- collocation | collocate
- objective
- inflection | inflected | inflectional
- premodify | premodifier
- ellipsis | elliptical
- combining form (comb. form)
- apodosis and protasis
- phrase (phr.)
- demonstrative
- clause
- preposition (prep.)
- sentence adverb |sentence adverbial
- possessive
- head
- modify | modifier
- that-clause
- adverb (adv.)
- person
- collective noun
- personal pronoun
- double object
- prepositional passive
- morpheme
- non-referential
- filler
- main clause
- subjunctive
- conjunction (conj.)
- subordinate clause
- unmarked genitive
- adjective
- dative
- pleonasm | pleonastic
- noun phrase
- quasi-
- construction
- apposition
- to-infinitive
- parasynthetic
- cognate object
- concrete
- proper noun | proper name
- combination
- main verb
- reflexive
- prepositional phrase
- case
- pro-form
- participial adjective
- vocative
- positive
- interrogative
- transitive
- anticipatory
- tense
- bare infinitive
- relative
- phrasal verb
- first person
- interjection
- element
- construed (const., constr.)
- compound | compounding
- complement
- adverbial | adverbially
- indefinite
- locative
- plural
- count noun
- feminine
- pronoun (pron.)
- zero
- direct object
- modal verb | modal auxiliary verb | modal auxiliary
- part of speech
- nominative
- agree | agreement
- nominal relative | nominal relative clause
- causative
- antecedent
- common noun
- intransitive
- conditional
- neuter
- noun (n.)
- complementary
- special use
- object | direct object | indirect object
- infinitive
- stem
- determiner
- active
- postmodify | postmodifier
- direct speech
- optative
- present tense
- declarative
- indirect passive
- prepositional object
- abstract
- auxiliary verb | auxiliary
- second person
- indirect speech
Overall, the perfect aspect is a verb tense used with complete actions.
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