imperfect

en-adj

imperfect (comparative more imperfect, superlative most imperfect)

more imperfect (comparative)
most imperfect (superlative)

From Middle English imperfit, from Old French imparfit (modern French imparfait), from Latin imperfectus. Spelling modified 15c. to conform Latin etymology. See im- + perfect.

Why, then, your other senses grow imperfect.

c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene vi]:

Nothing imperfet or deficient left
 Of all that he Created.

1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

Then say not man's imperfect, Heaven in fault; / Say rather, man's as perfect as he ought.

1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], (please specify |epistle=I to IV), London: Printed for J[ohn] Wilford, […], →OCLC:

(taxonomy) known or expected to be polyphyletic, as of a form taxon.

(grammar) belonging to a tense of verbs used in describing a past action that is incomplete or continuous


imperfect

(grammar) a tense of verbs used in describing a past action that is incomplete or continuous


simple present

en-noun

simple present (usually uncountable, plural simple presents)

simple (“accompanied by no modal or auxiliary verb”)

(grammar) The present tense; a verb or sentence in this tense.


present continuous

(grammar) A tense that describes an ongoing action in the present. In English it is formed by use of a form of be with a present participle.

現在進行時

duurvorm onvoltooid tegenwoordige tijd (d.o.t.t.)


conditional

From French conditionnel, from Old French condicionel, equivalent to condition + -al.


simple past

(grammar) A tense used to describe something that happened in the past, formed by the inflection of a single word, without any auxiliary verb such as be or have.

passé simple

these terms have slightly different meanings in French, they are not synonyms


future tense

The future tense came into being as the verbs sculan and willan lost their ancient power as finite verbs and turned into future auxiliaries.

1985, Robert Burchfield, The English Language, Oxford: Oxford University Press, page 157:

(grammar) The tense or time form of a verb used to refer to an event or occurrence that has not yet happened or is expected to happen in the future.

futuro semplice

referring to an action, a state, ... which is expected will be in progress or not yet started at the future time of reference

futuro anteriore

a state, ... which is expected that will be finished/ended/completed at the future time of reference


past tense

This is a report on a study of the use of the past tense forms in the 53 Japanese samples compiled for the Louvain International Database of Spoken English Interlanguage (LINDSEI) project.

2004, Tomoko Koneko, “The Use of Past Tense Forms by Japanese Learners of English”, in Junsaku Nakamura, Nagayuki Inoue, Tomoji Tabata, editors, English Corpora under Japanese Eyes, Rodopi, page 215:

As you have studied Spanish, you have probably had the feeling that there are just too many past tenses.

2009, Eric W. Vogt, Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Past-Tense Verbs Up Close, McGraw Hill, page v:

Some members of the [Mongolic language] family have three or more different affixes which seem to be markers of the past tense, so that in Khalkha, for example, irev, irjee, irlee, and irsen all can translate, and be translated by, the English past tense verb came.

2012, Robert I. Binnick, The Past Tenses of the Mongolian Verb, BRILL, page 1:

(grammar) A grammatical form (often a verb form) that refers to an event, transaction, occurrence, or object that happened (or had happened), or existed, at some time before now (the applicable reference time).


present tense

Animals—lions and zebras and beautiful snakes—live vividly in the present tense, in a bright unconsciousness of time. That is their innocence and their limitation. Humans carry with them their experiences, their pasts; men and women work with a knowledge of consequences and, doing so, impose order on the chaotic present and project consequences into the future.

1998 March 30, Lance Morrow, “The Trouble With The Present Tense”, in Time:

(grammar) A grammatical tense whose principal function is to locate a situation or event in the present time.


perfect tense

կատարյալ

verb form indicating that an action has been completed

A verb form indicating that an action or state has been completed at the present time, in the past, or shall be completed in the future.

Often, specifically, the present perfect tense as distinguished from the past perfect and future perfect tenses.


pluperfect tense

pluperfect tense (plural pluperfect tenses)

From Latin plus (“more”) + perfectus (“perfect”).

(grammar, of a verb) Tense of a verb used when referring to something that happened before a past setting or the imperfect; formed in English by adding had before the past participle of a verb, or by adding had been before the present participle of the verb.


past historic tense

Contrary to the frequently-heard contention that the past historic tense is used in writing but more rarely in spoken French, there are only nine instances of this tense, of which seven occur in the speech genres of FRNACO.

2016, Wendy J. Anderson, The Phraseology of Administrative French: A Corpus-based Study, BRILL, →ISBN, page 189:

(grammar) A tense used in some languages (such as French and Italian) in narrative, and in spoken language primarily when reading narrative or in storytelling, for completed actions in the past or in speaking of the deceased.


future perfect

future perfect (plural future perfects or futures perfect)

future perfects (plural)
futures perfect (plural)

(grammar) A tense that expresses action completed at some time in the future; in English it is formed by use of will have (or shall have) and a past participle.

voltooid tegenwoordig toekomende tijd

a tense that expresses action completed at some time in the future


imperfect tense

imperfect tense (plural imperfect tenses)

(grammar) A tense used to describe a past action that is ongoing, incomplete or continuous, or coincident with another action.


conditional tense

conditional tense (plural conditional tenses)

But he is stopped short by vocabulary, by the conditional tense, by that way of speaking that shifts everything into the hypothetical, into an imagined existence that could or could not be true.

2019, Maaza Mengiste
, The Shadow King, Canongate Books (2020), page 341:


preterite

From Middle English preterit, from Old French preterit (13th century), from Latin praeteritum (as in tempus praeteritum (“time past”)), the past participle of praetereō (“I go by, go past”), itself from praeter (“beyond, before, above, more than”) (comparative of prae (“before”)) + itum (the past participle of eō (“I go”)).

When simple verbs redouble the preterite, the compounds drop the first syllable, as: Pello, pĕpŭli, to drive away, to beat back; Repello, rĕpŭli, and not rĕpĕpŭli, to drive back, to repel.

1772, John Mair, A Radical Vocabulary, Latin and English, Edinburgh: A. Murray, and J. Cochran, for A. Kincaid & W. Creech, and J. Bell, →OCLC, page 101:

Nevertheless, a small amount of variation still exists in one area of standard English verbal morphology: the preterite and past participle forms of certain irregular verbs.

1994, Dieter Stein, Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade, Towards a Standard English: 1600-1800, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 115:

(grammar) A grammatical tense or verb form serving to denote events that took place or were completed in the past.


present perfect

(grammar) A perfect tense that expresses action in the past (usually completed) with consequences in the present time.

現在完成

tense that expresses action in the past with consequences in the present time


conditional perfect

conditional perfect (plural conditional perfects)

(grammar) A combination of the conditional mood and the perfect tense, roughly corresponding to English 'I would have...'


past continuous

(grammar) A tense used to describe actions and states continued in the past.


past perfect

A tense which describes actions that occurred before another action or event in the past; the pluperfect or the past anterior tense.


simple future

(grammar) Describing the tense which describes a future action. In English this uses forms of will, shall or be going to.


past perfect progressive

past perfect continuous
past perfect continuous


future continuous

(grammar) A tense used to express an ongoing action in the future. In English it is formed by use of will be (or shall be) and a present participle.


future perfect progressive

future perfect progressive (plural not attested)

Future perfect continuous
future perfect continuous#English


present perfect progressive

present perfect progressive (plural present perfect progressives)

present perfect continuous
present perfect continuous


future progressive

future progressive (plural future progressives)

Future continuous
future continuous#English


future perfect continuous

future perfect continuous (plural not attested)

(grammar) A tense used to express an ongoing action completed after some time in the future; in English formed by use of will have been (or shall have been) and a present participle.

folyamatos befejezett jövő

grammar: a tense used to express an ongoing action completed after some time in the future


present perfect continuous

present perfect continuous (uncountable)

(grammar) A tense that expresses an unbroken action continuing at the present time, started in the past. In English it is formed by using have been with a present participle.

kestoperfekti

nastojáščeje soveršénnoje neprerývnoje vrémja

настоя́щее соверше́нное непреры́вное вре́мя

nastojáščeje soveršénnoje prodólžennoje vrémja

настоя́щее соверше́нное продо́лженное вре́мя


past perfect continuous

(grammar) A tense that expresses an unbroken action continuing up to a certain time in the past. In English it is formed by using had been with a present participle.


past iterative

(grammar) A tense in the Lithuanian language that indicates complete iterative action in the past, similar to the English used to but with the possibility of the action still continuing in the present.

(grammar) An alternative inflection of verbs used in the Epic (Homeric) dialect of Ancient Greek, having σκ inside aorist or imperfect verbs, and indicating habitual or repeated action.