Verb Aspect: What It Is and How To Use It

Do you know what verb aspect is? This article will provide you with all of the information you need on verb tenses, including its definition, usage, example sentences, and more!

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What are verb aspects?

According to Walden, there are many different aspects or tenses of verbs in the English language:

  •    past perfect tense
  •   past participle
  •   Simple past tense
  •   Conditional perfect tense
  •   Simple future tense
  •   verb tenses
  •   present tense verbs
  •   Future progressive tense
  •   past progressive tense
  •   Perfect passive tense
  •   perfect tenses
  •   Future perfect tense
  •   simple tenses
  •   past tense verbs
  •   progressive verb tense
  •   Past progressive/continuous tense
  •   Present perfect tense
  •   present progressive tense
  •   future verb tenses
  •   Present perfect progressive/continuous tense
  •   present perfect progressive tense
  •   Conditional perfect progressive tense
  •   Imperative tense
  •  Indicative tense
  •   Future perfect progressive tense
  •   Conditional progressive tense
  •   perfect progressive tense
  •   To-infinitive tense
  •   Simple conditional tense
  •   Past perfect progressive tense
  •   past tenses
  •   Subjunctive tense
  •   future tense
  •   present tense
  •   Present participle tense
  •   simple present tense
  •   Imperfect tense
  •   perfect verb tense
  •   Gerund tense or gerund phrase 
  •   progressive tenses
  •   Conditional tense
  •   Past participle tense
  •   Bare infinitive tense

These are all called aspects or tenses of a verb. According to Grammar Monster, aspects include the perfective aspect, progressive aspects, simple aspect, the indicative mood, the present progressive aspect, the continuous aspect, the completive aspect, perfective verbs, perfect progressive aspect, an imperfective verb, the infinitive form, subjunctive mood, perfect progressive tenses, the imperfective aspect, and more. These are all used for different things such as ongoing action, a complete action, general truths, things in present time, past actions, repetition, habitual action, things that happened in past time, et cetera. The present tense form of the verb discusses currently happening action, for example. The future tense verbs refer to future action that will be taken. There are many different verb tenses with regular verbs and irregular verbs are conjugated differently. These different tenses may seem confusing at first, but after a lesson they will be second nature.

See if you can determine which aspect the following sentences from Your Dictionary are in. 

  •  You will meet Joe at the next party. (a prediction)
  •  Erin smokes.
  •  By next week, she will have been traveling for six months.
  •  My alarm rings at seven. (it will ring whether I am there to hear it or not)
  •  Jessica will take the elevator on Thursday. (a prediction based on observation)
  •  He quit drinking many years ago.
  •  I have been cooking for days.
  •  The party starts at eight. (a scheduled event)
  •  I walk to work every day.
  •  He had been traveling for 36 hours.
  •  He will have finished his science project by the time school starts.
  •  I will walk to work tomorrow. (a promise and prediction)
  •  You met Joe at Jim’s party.
  •   I have eaten dinner already.
  •  Jim doesn’t drink anymore.
  •  Erin will spend thousands of dollars on tobacco this year. (a prediction based on calculation)
  •  The elevator inspector comes on Tuesday. (an unchanging appointment)
  •  Jessica always takes the elevator.
  •  Erin smoked 20 cigarettes on Friday.
  •  By 8 P.M., the oven will be roasting.
  •  The candles are flickering.
  •  They had danced for over three hours before going home.
  •  The castle was shining in the moonlight.
  •  I walked to work yesterday.
  •  Jim’s AA meeting is next Wednesday. (a scheduled event)
  •  Jessica took the elevator this morning.
  •  Jim won’t drink any kind of alcohol. (a prediction based on observation)
  •  Do you know Joe?

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. 

  •    dual
  •    common noun
  •    part of speech
  •    zero
  •    third-person
  •    participial adjective
  •    imperative (imper.)
  •    periphrasis | periphrastic
  •    phrasal verb
  •    count noun
  •    construed (const., constr.)
  •    prepositional object
  •    parenthetical | parenthetically
  •    passive
  •    optative
  •    singular
  •    prepositional phrase
  •    instrumental
  •    to-infinitive
  •    element
  •    proper noun | proper name
  •    premodify | premodifier
  •    concrete
  •    cataphoric
  •    second person
  •    modify | modifier
  •    double object
  •    non-finite
  •    stem
  •    complement
  •    dative
  •    demonstrative
  •    objective
  •    non-referential
  •    pleonasm | pleonastic
  •    prefix
  •    antecedent
  •    conjunction (conj.)
  •    absolute (absol.)
  •    auxiliary verb | auxiliary
  •    main clause
  •    finite
  •    predicative
  •    mass noun
  •    simple
  •    subordinate clause
  •    superlative
  •    conditional
  •    mood
  •    bare infinitive
  •    base form
  •    interjection
  •    active
  •    possessive pronoun
  •    personal pronoun
  •    present tense
  •    intensifier
  •    similative
  •    main verb
  •    nominative
  •    adjective
  •    verbal noun
  •    complementary
  •    direct speech
  •    that-clause
  •    indirect passive
  •    collocation | collocate
  •    apodosis and protasis
  •    combining form (comb. form)
  •    postmodify | postmodifier
  •    anaphoric
  •    indirect object
  •    intransitive
  •    participle | past participle | present participle
  •    article
  •    preposition (prep.)
  •    impersonal (impers.)
  •    tense
  •    passive infinitive
  •    apposition
  •    possessive adjective
  •    prepositional passive
  •    number
  •    accusative
  •    modal verb | modal auxiliary verb | modal auxiliary
  •    locative
  •    nominal relative | nominal relative clause
  •    gerund
  •    case
  •    direct object
  •    sentence adverb |sentence adverbial
  •    head
  •    cognate object
  •    quasi-
  •    infinitive
  •    abstract
  •    feminine
  •    filler
  •    clause
  •    masculine
  •    noun phrase
  •    inflection | inflected | inflectional
  •    definite article
  •    appositive
  •    causative
  •    direct question
  •    first person
  •    relative
  •    plural
  •    collective noun
  •    subjunctive
  •    verb (v.)
  •    compound | compounding
  •    protasis
  •    gender
  •    present participle
  •    unmarked genitive
  •    past tense
  •    indirect question
  •    comparative
  •    interrogative
  •    adverb (adv.)
  •    object | direct object | indirect object
  •    special use
  •    vocative
  •    determiner
  •    parasynthetic
  •    anticipatory
  •    declarative
  •    indirect speech
  •    ellipsis | elliptical
  •    person
  •    pro-form
  •    construction
  •    agree | agreement
  •    combination
  •    agent noun
  •    indicative
  •    indefinite
  •    possessive
  •    noun (n.)
  •    positive
  •    perfect
  •    phrase (phr.)
  •    morpheme
  •    subjective
  •    neuter
  •    adverbial | adverbially
  •    transitive
  •    copular verb | copula
  •    attributive
  •    pronoun (pron.)
  •    reflexive
  •    genitive
  •    progressive
  •    subject

Overall, there are many different verb tenses and aspects in the English language. Verbs are a grammatical category. Try seeing if you can spot different verb aspects used in sentences today.

Sources:

  1. Glossary of grammatical terms | OED 
  2. Verb Forms: “-ing,” Infinitives, and Past Participles – Grammar – Academic Guides at Walden University 
  3. Basic English Verb Tenses and Usage Tips | Your Dictionary 
  4. Basic English Verb Tenses and Usage Tips | Grammar MonsterÂ