grammatical aspect
Action's temporal character
Grammatical aspect describes how a verb presents an action's internal structure in time—whether it's completed, ongoing, repeated, or just beginning.
English marks aspect through verb forms and auxiliaries: She wrote (simple) versus She was writing (progressive) versus She has written (perfect).
Aspect differs from tense, which locates action in past, present, or future; aspect shows the shape of the action itself.
Favoring reform and innovation
- continuousWithout pause or gap
- ongoingIn progress now
- unboundedHaving no limits
- habitualDone by routine
iterative · stative · open-ended · unfinished · incomplete · extended · sustained · repetitive
Giving additional support
- participleVerb form as adjective
- gerundVerb-derived noun form
- inflectionWord form alteration
- periphrasticExpressed through excess words
conjugation · marker · affix · suffix · prefix · reduplication · morpheme · verb form
Act of finishing
- boundedConfined within limits
- achievementAccomplished goal or deed
- accomplishmentSuccessful completion of aim
- terminativeExpressing an endpoint
punctual · endpoint · culmination · finished · concluded · delimited · closed · instantaneous
Without any flaw
- pluperfectTense for earlier past
- preteriteSimple past tense
- anteriorSituated toward the front
- retrospectiveReviewing what came before
experiential · present progressive · sequence of tenses · viewpoint
Potential future happening
- boundednessState of having limits
- punctualityBeing on time
- achievementAccomplished goal or deed
- accomplishmentSuccessful completion of aim
progressive
Favoring reform and innovation
- continuousWithout pause or gap
- ongoingIn progress now
- unboundedHaving no limits
habitual · iterative · stative · open-ended · unfinished · incomplete · extended · sustained · repetitive · customary
auxiliary
Giving additional support
- participleVerb form as adjective
- gerundVerb-derived noun form
- inflectionWord form alteration
periphrastic · conjugation · marker · affix · suffix · prefix · reduplication · morpheme · verb form · clitic
completion
Act of finishing
- boundedConfined within limits
- achievementAccomplished goal or deed
- accomplishmentSuccessful completion of aim
terminative · punctual · endpoint · culmination · finished · concluded · delimited · closed · instantaneous · conclusive
perfect
Without any flaw
- pluperfectTense for earlier past
- preteriteSimple past tense
- anteriorSituated toward the front
retrospective · experiential · present progressive · sequence of tenses · viewpoint
eventuality
Potential future happening
- boundednessState of having limits
- punctualityBeing on time
- achievementAccomplished goal or deed
- Imperfect goodsseconds, irregulars, factory seconds, culls, rejects
aspect, grammar, grammatical, grammatically, ungrammatical, diagrammatically, grammaticality, ungrammatically