perfect tense
Grammar's finished form
The perfect tense indicates completed action, formed with "have" plus a past participle.
The present perfect connects past to present: I have finished the report.
The past perfect places one event before another in the past: She had left before I arrived.
The future perfect marks completion before a future point: By tomorrow, they will have gone.
Feature or dimension
- auxiliary verbVerb modifying main verb
- past participleCompleted action form
- haveKeep in possession
- hasHolds in possession
had · pluperfect · indicative · subjunctive · conditional · morphology · syntax · progressive
State of coming before
- sequence of tensesVerb timing consistency rule
- narrativeAccount of events
- retrospectiveReviewing what came before
- experientialDerived from direct involvement
Brought to an end
- accomplishedHighly skilled, expert
- fulfilledCompletely satisfied, realized
- realizedBecame aware of
- achievedSuccessfully completed a goal
anterior · bounded · terminative · endpoint · culmination · consummation · finality
aspect
Feature or dimension
- auxiliary verbVerb modifying main verb
- past participleCompleted action form
- haveKeep in possession
has · had · pluperfect · indicative · subjunctive · conditional · morphology · syntax · progressive · simple
anteriority
State of coming before
- sequence of tensesVerb timing consistency rule
- narrativeAccount of events
- retrospectiveReviewing what came before
finished
Brought to an end
- accomplishedHighly skilled, expert
- fulfilledCompletely satisfied, realized
- realizedBecame aware of
achieved · anterior · bounded · terminative · endpoint · culmination · consummation · finality
- grammardeclension, pronouns, adjectives, conjugation, nouns
- grammar termsnoun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun
- LatinLatin, Latin vocabulary, Latin roots, Latin alphabet, Latin phrases
- verb tensespast, present, future, simple past, simple present
- auxiliariesbe, have, do, can, could
- Hebrew grammarabsolute state, matres lectionis, verb conjugation, root system, root systems
perfect tensesimple tense
Verb form without auxiliaries
simple past · simple present · simple future · preterite · present tense
perfect, tense, imperfect, perfection, perfectionist, perfectionism, perfectionists, perfective, perfectibility