Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The word "perfect" in this sense means "completed"; it contrasts with the "imperfect", which denotes uncompleted actions or states. In English grammar, the pluperfect (e.g. "had written") is now usually called the past perfect, since it combines past tense with perfect aspect. (The same term is sometimes used in relation to the grammar of other ...
The past perfect progressive or past perfect continuous (also known as the pluperfect progressive or pluperfect continuous) combines perfect progressive aspect with past tense. It is formed by combining had (the past tense of auxiliary have), been (the past participle of be), and the present participle of the main verb.
Regular verbs have identical past tense and past participle forms in -ed, but there are 100 or so irregular English verbs with different forms (see list). The verbs have, do and say also have irregular third-person present tense forms (has, does /dʌz/, says /sɛz/).
Resultative perfect (referring to a state in the present which is the result or endpoint of an event in the past): "I have lost my pen-knife" (message: I still don't have it) Continuative perfect (past situations continuing into present): "I have always guided him" Anterior perfect (completed past situations, but with relevance to the present):
The perfect infinitive can further be governed by modal verbs to express various meanings, mostly combining modality with past reference: "I should have eaten" etc. In particular, the modals will and shall and their subjunctive forms would and should are used to combine future or hypothetical reference with aspectual meaning:
The terms perfective and perfect should not be confused. A perfect tense (abbreviated PERF or PRF) is a grammatical form used to describe a past event with present relevance, or a present state resulting from a past situation. For example, "I have put it on the table" implies both that I put the object on the table and that it is still there ...
The difference between "past" ("absolute past") and "anterior" ("relative past") is that, the past-tensed verb is about a situation which took place prior to the speech-act, while the anterior-tensed verb is about a situation which took place prior to some other, more-topical (or more-focal) event which is also being spoken of.
Past perfect is a verb tense which represents actions that occurred before other actions in the past. Past perfect may also refer to: Past Perfect, a 1984 novel by Yaakov Shabtai; Pastperfect, a 2004 DVD by VNV Nation; Past Perfect Future Tense, an album by Magne F; Past Perfect, an Italian film; Past Perfect, an action-science fiction film ...