Past tense

The term imperfect ( Latin imperfectus 'unfinished') usually refers to a tense in grammar that expresses both the past and the unfinished aspect .

The previously common use of the term “imperfect” for the unassembled past tense of the verb in German grammar is considered erroneous by linguistics because this past tense is not tied to an imperfect aspect (it is not incomplete). Therefore, the past tense is used today as the usual technical term for the first past.

See also

• Imparfait (imperfect tense in French)
• Imperfecto (imperfect in Spanish)
• Imperfetto (imperfect in Italian)
• Paratatikos (past tense in Greek)
• Past progressive (imperfect in English)
• Imperfect aspect

Web links

Wiktionary: Past tense  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hadumod Bußmann (Ed.): Lexicon of Linguistics . 4th revised and bibliographically supplemented edition. Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-520-45204-7 , pp. 278 .
2. ↑ Past tense / past tense. In: Onion Fish Abc. Spiegel Online, accessed May 25, 2019 .