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The word "perfect" in this sense means "completed"; it contrasts with the "imperfect", which denotes uncompleted actions or states. In English grammar, the pluperfect (e.g. "had written") is now usually called the past perfect, since it combines past tense with perfect aspect. (The same term is sometimes used in relation to the grammar of other ...
The perfect indicative active tense is the third principal part given in Latin dictionaries. ... Past event. The perfect most frequently narrates an event in the past ...
Indicative Subjunctive Perfect: Future perfect: Pluperfect: Perfect: Pluperfect: Active I loved: I will have loved: I had loved: I loved: I had loved: I you sg. he, she, it we you pl. they: amāvī amāvistī amāvit amāvimus amāvistis amāvērunt/-ēre * amāverō amāverīs/is amāverit amāverīmus/-imus amāverītis/-itis amāverint ...
More than half the 'present indicative' verbs for past events in Caesar's books are of this kind. [xxi] However, in recounts of events long past at the time of narration, the 'imperfect indicative' is used instead of 'perfect indicative' or 'present indicative' as if these events were being vividly remembered by a story-internal observer in ...
In the indicative mood there are seven tenses: present, imperfect, future, aorist (the equivalent of past simple), perfect, pluperfect, and future perfect. (The last two, especially the future perfect, are rarely used). In the subjunctive and imperative mood, however, there are only three tenses (present, aorist, and perfect).
past habit 'imperfect indicative' multum enim illum audiēbam (Cicero) I used to listen to him a lot 'perfect indicative' dīcēbat melius quam scrīpsit Hortēnsius (Cicero) [103] 'Hortensius spoke better than he wrote' In comparisons, a 'perfect' verb is used instead of an 'imperfect' one for the standard habit. [104] iterative past events
Just as a 'perfect indicative' verb can represent either a past event or the present result (e.g. 'he has died' = 'he is dead'), so the perfect periphrasis with the 'perfect infinitive' auxiliary fuisse often represent either a past-in-past event or present-in-past result at the time of the reported statement.
The conjugations of the indicative perfect past and the indicative imperfect past are derived from participles (just like the past tense formation in Slavic languages) and hence they agree with the grammatical number and the gender of noun which the pronoun refers to and not the pronoun itself. The perfect past doubles as the perfective aspect ...