Perfect Aspect

What Is The Perfect Aspect?

The perfect aspect is one of the two main aspects of the English language. It tells us that an action or state has been completed. The perfect aspect is the opposite of the progressive aspect (which tells us something is ongoing or continuing). When we use the perfect aspect we show that the action has finished and is no longer continuing.

Perfect Aspect Verbs

Perfect verbs:

• I had eaten

• she has been

• he ran

• he has run

• she sat

• I stood

Verbs in the perfect aspect are past participles. They show that an action has already been completed.

Perfect Aspect Examples

Let's have a look at some examples of the perfect aspect.

This is an example of the perfect aspect being used in a sentence. Due to the use of the past participle 'eaten', we know that the subjects in the sentence, 'we', are no longer eating. The process of eating is therefore complete, which shows us that the sentence is written in the perfect aspect.

This is another example of the perfect aspect in a sentence. Because the verb 'played' is a past participle, we can see that the subjects of the sentence are no longer playing together and, therefore, that the action is complete.

Fig 1. We had eaten already

How Do You Write In The Perfect Aspect?

Most of us know how to form a sentence in the perfect aspect without even realizing it. When you need to form a sentence that uses the perfect aspect, we can follow the steps below:

• Auxiliary verb + past participle

In the perfect aspect:

• The verb root 'to have' (including had, has, etc.) is often used as an auxiliary verb.

• A past participle typically expresses a completed action. It is a verb used in the perfect aspect as it shows something is no longer continuing.

Importance of the Perfect Aspect

Now that we can define what the perfect aspect is, we need to think about how and why it is used in spoken and written English.

Why do we use the perfect aspect?

The perfect aspect is used to show that an action is completed. We have already explored how we form a sentence in the perfect aspect, but why do we do this?

If we consider real-world situations, it is often useful to show that an action or state is completed. We do this by using the perfect aspect alongside different tenses. Without the perfect aspect, we would not be able to know whether an action has finished occurring.

Let's consider how the perfect aspect works with tense.

The Perfect Aspect and Tense

The perfect aspect is combined with the past, present, and future tense to create verb tenses. There are twelve verb tenses in total that help us to describe specific actions and when / how they occurred. We have three tenses past, present, and future, that can be expressed as either perfect or progressive.

Below you can see a table showing how the perfect aspect is combined with tense to create verb tenses:

Examples of Perfect Aspects In The Perfect Tense

We will now take a look at an example of each of these verb tenses being used in a sentence. Try and notice the difference between the perfect aspect being used in past, present, and future tense.

Past perfect tense

This sentence is written in the perfect past tense. We can see the auxiliary verb paired with the past progressive to show us that the action (in this case, the action is the subject meeting 'her') has already happened.

By using the auxiliary verb 'had' we can also see that the sentence not only describes a completed action but that it is also in the past tense.

Present perfect tense

This sentence is written in the perfect present tense. This time we can see that the auxiliary verb has changed to a different form and is now 'has' (this is the present form of the verb 'have' and makes the difference between the perfect present tense and the past tense). The auxiliary verb is still paired with a past participle (the -ed verb 'finished') and shows us that the sentence is written in the perfect aspect.

By using the auxiliary verb 'has' we can see that the sentence (although still completed and in the perfect aspect) is written in the present tense.

Future perfect tense

This time, the sentence is written in the perfect future tense. The auxiliary verb 'have' has been paired with the past participle 'arrived' to show us that the sentence is written in the perfect aspect. The verbs 'will have' show us that this sentence is written in the future tense but that the action is still completed.

Fig 2. Anne will have arrived - Pixabay

The Perfect And Imperfect (progressive) Aspect

There are two major aspects used in the English language that are used alongside the past, present, and future tenses to show whether the action is completed or ongoing:

• The perfect aspect tells us when actions have been completed.

• The imperfect (ongoing) aspect tells us when an action or state is continuous and ongoing. This doesn't necessarily mean that is happening currently, but that it will continue to happen.

Perfect vs. imperfect examples

Let's now have a look at some examples of perfect and imperfect forms of the same verbs. In the table, the infinitive verb is listed first so was can see how the verb form changes to be conjugated into either the perfect form or the imperfect form.