imperfective aspect

English

Noun

imperfective aspect (uncountable)

1. (grammar) A feature of a verb which denotes that its action or condition does not have a fixed temporal boundary, but is habitual, unfinished, continuous, repetitive or in progress.
   • 2007, Almut Hintze, A Zoroastrian Liturgy: The Worship in Seven Chapters (Yasna 35—41), Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, page 240,

     If the root meaning is iterative or durative, such as 'to go', the verb belongs to the imperfective aspect and forms a root present.

   • 2012, David Holton, Peter Mackridge, Irene Philippaki-Warburton, Vassilios Spyropoulos (reviser), Greek: A Comprehensive Grammar of the Modern Language, Taylor & Francis (Routledge), 2nd Edition, page 286,

     The imperfective aspect in Greek presents the action or state expressed by the verb either as a single but continuous event (progressively) or as a repetitive or habitual one.

   • 2012, Zygmunt Frajzyngier, A Grammar of Wandala, Walter De Gruyter (De Gruyter Mouton), page 149,

     Subject pronouns precede the simple form of the verb and the reduplicated form of the verb in the imperfective aspect.

Coordinate terms

• perfective aspect

Translations

feature of a verb

• Belarusian: незако́нчанае трыва́нне n (njezakónčanaje tryvánnje)
• Bulgarian: несвърше́н вид m (nesvǎršén vid)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 未完成體／未完成体 (wèiwánchéngtǐ), 非完成體／非完成体, 非完整体 (fēiwánchéngtǐ)

• Czech: nedokonavý vid m
• Finnish: imperfektiivinen aspekti (fi)
• French: imperfectif (fr) m
• Georgian: უსრული ასპექტი (usruli asṗekṭi)
• German: Imperfektum n
• Greek: μη τετελεσμένος f (mi tetelesménos)
• Hungarian: folyamatos/befejezetlen szemlélet/igeszemlélet/aspektus
• Italian: imperfetto (it) m
• Japanese: 未完了相 (みかんりょうそう, mikanryōsō)
• Korean: 미완료상 (miwallyosang), 불완료상 (burwallyosang), 불완료체 (burwallyoche)
• Latin: imperfectum n
• Macedonian: не́свршен вид m (nésvršen vid)
• Polish: aspekt niedokonany m
• Portuguese: imperfectivo (pt) m
• Romanian: imperfect (ro) n (noun), aspect imperfect n
• Russian: несоверше́нный вид (ru) m (nesoveršénnyj vid)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: несвршени вид m

  Roman: nesvršeni vid m

• Slovak: nedokonavý vid
• Spanish: imperfecto (es) m
• Swedish: imperfekt (sv), imperfektum (sv) (dated)
• Tagalog: nagaganap
• Ukrainian: недоко́наний вид (uk) m (nedokónanyj vyd)
• Vietnamese: thể chưa hoàn thành

See also

• aorist aspect
• iterative aspect
• perfective aspect
• semelfactive aspect

Further reading

• imperfective aspect on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• grammatical aspect on Wikipedia.Wikipedia