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PERFECT ASPECT
The perfect aspect is a grammatical aspect, which refers to a state resulting from a previous action (also described as a previous action with relevance to a particular time, or a previous action viewed from the perspective of a later time).
Note: The perfect aspect is not the same as the perfective aspect. See Grammatical aspect#Confusing terminology: perfective vs. perfect.
In English, the perfect aspect can be combined with any simple tense (past, present or future), yielding perfect tenses that are formed using the conjugations of the auxiliary verb have and a verb:
In addition to these, we can distinguish the three perfect progressive tenses:
passive I have been being overcome. This sentence, in passive voice, seems to follow the correct rules of grammar, however it is incorrect and cannot be used in this way.
passive I had been being overcome.
Again, the passive voice form of this sentence seems to follow the correct rules of grammar, but again it is incorrect and cannot be used in this way.
The perfect aspect can also be combined with various modal auxiliary verbs, such as would, should, could, may or might:
- Conditional perfect: I would have overcome, passive I would have been overcome.
- should-perfect: I should have overcome, passive I should have been overcome.
Progressives can likewise be formed from these:
The various perfect progressive passives are a fairly recent addition to English, and some speakers still find them questionable or even ungrammatical.[citation needed]
See also
External links
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