Talk:Imperfect

More languages needed.
I only have enough knowledge in Spanish to put on here. Please, if you know any other language that uses the imperfect tense (French, German, Latin, etc), do not hesitate to add it here. However, try to keep the overall page format similar, so that it looks consistent.--Bsdlogical 01:23, 8 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Format of vocabulary lists
Right now, it seems like the format of the vocabulary lists is rather superfluous. I think that the best way is just sticking with bulleted lists, without the extra indentation that creates a highlighted table. I've removed this, but there may be a better way to list this vocabulary. In addition, parts of the entire article are repeated (i.e. aspects of the imperfect tense that apply to all languages listed so far). It would be better to unify them somehow, then provide additional information for individual languages. --Bsdlogical 23:31, 23 January 2006 (UTC)

Take this out?
'Humorously, the verb for work, trabajar, in the personal imperfect becomes "trabajaba". The effect is amplified in the first-person plural: "we were working" becomes "trabajábamos".'

I don't think thats needed or true.

It is actually true... there's some ridiculous conjugations in some languages. It is not needed though... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.26.22.44 (talk) 22:39, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

English doesn't have imperfect tense
English doesn't have imperfect tense. If it had, then in sentences like "Last year I walked to school every day" we used past imperfect and not simple past.

Or, more correctly put:

English doesn't have imperfect tense. If it did, then for sentences like "....", we would use past imperfect and not simple past. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Montreux (talk • contribs) 09:22, 20 April 2010 (UTC)


 * well, what about "the professor opined the world was round" v. "the professor opined the world is round". I understand the latter is incorrect, but it seems more linguistically nuanced since the world still is round.  It seems that English, or the correct academic version thereof, more than other languages is mired in a rule of temporal agreement that doesn't always accurately reflect the reality it is trying to convey.


 * Why is it not: "The professor opined, 'the world was/is round'."? 124.170.66.192 (talk) 07:58, 9 February 2012 (UTC)

Added section on Arabic
Added section on Arabic (fusha). Will add some lists later when I have my grammar handy. 130.225.202.73 19:21, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

Semitic languages
Semitic languages, use the imperfective and perfective aspects, respectively. Aspects are similar to tenses, but differ by requiring contextual comprehension in order to arrive at whether or not the verb indicates a completed or non-completed action.
 * Let's take an example from Aramaic that is a Semitic language.
 * This link will show Morphological information for a Bible Verse from Aramaic Peshitta:
 * http://dukhrana.com/peshitta/analyze_verse.php?lang=en&verse=2Timothy+1:4&source=ubs&font=Estrangelo+Edessa&size=125%25
 * 2Ti 1:4* ܘܲܣܘܹܐ ܐ݈ܢܵܐ ܠܡܸܚܙܝܵܟ݂ ܘܡܸܬ݁ܕ݁ܟ݂ܲܪ ܐ݈ܢܵܐ ܕܸ݁ܡܥܲܝܟ݁ ܕܸ݁ܐܬ݂ܡܠܹܐ ܚܲܕ݂ܘܿܬ݂ܵܐ ܀
 * uē·sâuęe eęnāe lî·mę·ĥâziā·kâ uî·męṭ·đâcēr eęnāe đę·mî·aēi·kâ đę·et·mâlęe ĥēdūo·tāe.
 * And desiring (Passive Participle) I to see (Infinitive Tense) You, and mindful (Participles) I of Your tears, that even filled (Imperfect Tense) with gladness.

Regarding the discussion of the past progressive in Italian
The article reads: "There is another imperfect tense in Italian formed by combining the imperfect of the verb stare (stavo, stavi, stava, stavamo, stavate, stavano) with the gerund. For example, "parlavo" could be said as "stavo parlando". The difference is similar to the difference between "I eat" and "I am eating" in English. However, English does not make this distinction in the imperfect tense." Really? Why is this not similar to the distinction between "I ate" and "I was eating". (Example sentences: 1) "When I was in college, I usually ate in the cafeteria"; 2) "One evening, while I was at college, I was eating in the cafeteria."

Ludwig X (talk) 19:34, 25 March 2008 (UTC)

Can it still be happening?
Hello. It's my understanding that in the imperfect tense, something may well still be happening. For example, if I say "I was eating dinner when the phone rang," that doesn't necessarily mean that I'm not still eating dinner. Any other opinions on this? 190.42.12.43 (talk) 22:41, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

'''Yes, it can still be happening. However, the emphasis is on that it was an ongoing action in the past. The present state is irrelevant. Here are a couple of examples:'''

1. I sold cars for a living last year. [= I used to sell cars for a living] Imperfective aspect due to a repetitive action. You may still sell cars in the present, but it is of not relevance.

2. I sold several cars last year. Perfective apsect, the action is completed. You sold those cars last year, so you cannot sell them now. However, you may be able to sell other cars, but it is of no relevance.

I must say, however, that in some languages the second sentence could still be made with the imperfective aspect. In that case, it would imply that you were in the process of selling those several cars, that you were trying to sell them, but they were not sold. If it had occurred over a short period of time, then you would be able to say "I was selling several cars", but if we imply a broad time interval, then past progressive wouldn't work in English. --173.34.51.76 (talk) 16:39, 12 July 2009 (UTC)


 * How about this one, "I responded to the questionnaire by stating my gender was male" v. "I responded to the questionnaire by stating my gender is male". I know the latter is considered incorrect but it seems more nuanced to use this "imperfect" articulation which, contrarian that I am, I sometimes do as language is a social convention, not a natural law, that is driven by common usages over time, as obviously absent a sex change operation I haven't had, my gender remains the same.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.17.119.109 (talk) 21:07, 16 June 2010 (UTC)

Slavic languages do have imperfect tense
Slavic languages do have imperfect tense. As a native speaker of Russian, I can assure that it exists at least in my language. In fact, there are only two forms of past tense distinguished in Russian - one has the imperfective aspect, the other one has the perfective aspect. All the other classical forms of past tense have been lost (there is no past perfect, past progressive, or even present perfect). Most probably, Ukrainian and Belorussian have the same features. If I am not mistaken, even Serbian/Croatian have the imperfective aspect. I don't know how it's formed in other languages, but in Russian it is done by adding prefix s- before the verb in past tense. E.g. Ya delal = I did or I have done (imperfective aspect) Ya sdelal = I did or I have done (perfective aspect) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.34.51.76 (talk) 01:47, 11 July 2009 (UTC)

You are confusing aspect with tense. Russian does not have the Imperfect tense, the only Slavic language which have them are Bulgarian, Macedonian and literary Croatian and Serbian. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.98.135.122 (talk) 01:28, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Can we at least make some kind of note that Slavic languages demonstrate imperfective time using separate words but it is not associated to tense? The way that it is currently written seems to state that Slavic languages do not differentiate in aspect which may be confusing to people used to romance languages. Appariently (talk) 16:58, 10 January 2018 (UTC)

Turkish is not Indo-European
Turkish language is not an Indo-European language, it's Ural-Altaic. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.172.202.152 (talk) 19:27, 27 July 2010 (UTC)

Past continuous?!?
Why does Past continuous redirect to here? In a lot of languages, the Past continuous and the Past imperfective are radically different things, employed in different situations! Besides that, if Present continuous redirects to Continuous and progressive aspects (an article that speaks only about aspect, and does not differentiate tense), so should redirect Past Continuous, and not to here! 85.244.207.7 (talk) 15:47, 22 May 2012 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure it was such a terrible redirect, but there are several articles people could equally reasonably be looking for when entering that title, so I've converted the redirect into a disambiguation page. The small number of links in other articles have been corrected. Victor Yus (talk) 18:27, 1 January 2013 (UTC)

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Finnish
I was looking this up to see how Finnish and English related. Yet Finnish is not here, when looking at the Finnish article it basically says that Finnish does not have an imperfect. Nevertheless the tense is called "imperfekti" in Finnish which is translated as "imperfect" in the English text books on learning Finnish. SO the meaning of imperfect, at least for this language of Finnish, is NOT what the imperfect is described as here. This could be made clearer and alternative terminology added. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.112.30.115 (talk) 07:36, 19 March 2021 (UTC)