Pluperfect tense
Encyclopedia
The pluperfect also called past perfect in English
, is a grammatical combination of past tense
with the perfect, itself a combination of tense
and aspect
, that exists in most Indo-European languages
though there is not one in Irish. It is used to refer to an event that had continuing relevance to a past time. Comrie classifies the pluperfect as an absolute-relative tense because it absolutely (not by context) establishes a deixis
(the past event) and places the action relative to the deixis (before it).
In the sentence "A man who for years had thought he had reached the absolute limit of all possible suffering now found that suffering had no limits, and that he could suffer still more, and more intensely" (from Victor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning
), "had thought" and "had reached" are examples of the pluperfect. They refer to an event (a man thinking he has reached the limit of his capacity to suffer), which takes place before another event (the man discovering that his capacity to suffer has no limit), that are still relevant at the time of the later event. Because that second, subsequent event is itself a past event and the past tense
is used to refer to it ("a man...now found"), the pluperfect is needed to make it clear that the first event (reaching the limit) has taken place even earlier in the past.
In the English language
, the pluperfect is often called the past perfect. It is formed by combining the auxiliary verb
had with the past participle. While the English present perfect cannot be accompanied by an adverb precisely specifying when the action takes place, the same is not true of the English pluperfect: *"I have gone last Friday" is incorrect, whereas "I had gone the previous Friday" is correct.
In German
, the pluperfect (Plusquamperfekt or Vorvergangenheit, lit. pre-past) is used in much the same manner, normally in a nachdem sentence. The Plusquamperfekt is formed with the Partizip Perfekt (Partizip II) of the full lexical verb, plus the auxiliary verb haben or sein in its preterite
form, depending on the full lexical verb in question. For example: Nachdem ich aufgestanden war, ging ich ins Badezimmer. After I had got up, I went into the bathroom.
In Dutch
, the pluperfect (Voltooid verleden tijd) is formed similarly as in German: the voltooid deelwoord is combined with an auxiliary declination of hebben or zijn, depending on the full lexical verb: Voordat ik er erg in had, was het al twaalf uur geworden. - Before I noticed, it had become noon already. In addition, pluperfect is sometimes used instead of present perfect: Dat had ik al gezien (voordat jij het zag) - lit.: I had seen that (before you did). The parenthesized part is implied and, therefore, can be omitted.
In French the indicative pluperfect is formed by taking the appropriate form of the indicative imperfect of the auxiliaries avoir or être and adding the past participle, j'avais mangé.
In Italian
there are two pluperfects in the indicative mood: the recent pluperfect (trapassato prossimo) is formed correspondingly to French by using the imperfect of the appropriate auxiliary verb (essere or avere) plus the past participle. For example, Ero affamato perché non avevo mangiato I was hungry because I had not eaten. The remote pluperfect (trapassato remoto) is formed by using the preterite
of the appropriate auxiliary verb plus the past participle. In the Italian consecutio temporum, the trapassato remoto should be used for completed actions in a clause subjugated to a clause whose verb is in the preterite
.
In Spanish, the pluperfect (pluscuamperfecto, or antecopretérito) is (similarly) formed from the imperfect of the auxiliary verb haber plus the past participle. For example, Había comido cuando vino mi madre. I had eaten when my mother came.
In Portuguese
, there is a synthetic pluperfect (mais-que-perfeito). For example, Quando cheguei soube que o meu amigo morrera 'When I came I found out that my friend had died'. Its use has become mostly literary, however, and in spoken Portuguese, the pluperfect is usually formed using the auxiliary verb ter plus the past participle. For example, Quando cheguei soube que o meu amigo tinha morrido. A more formal way of expressing the pluperfect uses the verb "haver". For example: Quando cheguei soube que o meu amigo havia morrido.
In Judeo-Spanish, the Latin pluperfect forms with little alteration have been preserved (e.g. final /m/ and /t/ are dropped) to express this tense (pluskuamperfekto), which is identical in form to the imperfect subjunctive. It has a similar form to the Portuguese, thus the Portuguese example above in Jidyo is, Kuando yegí suve ke mi haver morera 'When I came I knew that my friend had died'. It remains the main spoken form, though in some varieties, similarly to Spanish or Portuguese, the pluperfect is formed using the auxiliary verbs tener or aver plus the past participle. For example, Kuando yegí suve ke mi haver tuve morido or Kuando yegí suve ke mi haver avía morido.
In Romanian
, the pluperfect (mai mult ca perfectul) is expressed without any auxiliary words, using a particular form of the verb, originated in the Latin pluperfect subjunctive. (compare Italian imperfect subjunctive Sembrava che Elsa non venisse with Romanian pluperfect Părea că Elsa nu venise). For example, in Când l-am întrebat, el văzuse deja filmul 'When I asked him, he had already seen the movie'. The verb văzuse is in the pluperfect form of a vedea 'to see'. Technically, this form is obtained from the singular third person form of the simple perfect tense by adding specific terminations for each person and number.
However, in northern Transylvania there is a regional way to state the pluperfect (that may reflect the German influence). The pluperfect is expressed by combining the auxiliary verb fost or the short version "fo'" (= "was" in English or "war" in German) with the participle, which (quite difficult to explain) is stated in its feminine form. Examples:
"o fost foastă" (or "o fo' foastă") = he had been; "am fost văzută" = I had been seen; "or fost venită" = they had come.
In Galician
, the pluperfect ( Pretérito pluscuamperfecto) is a simple tense formed by inflecting the verb: fuxiras you (sg.) had fled.
Unlike Russian
, which today has only remnants of pluperfect, the Ukrainian language
and the Belarusian language
still preserve a distinct pluperfect (давньоминулий час or запрошлы час – davn'omynulyj čas or zaprošły čas) that is formed by preceding the verb with buv / bula in Ukrainian and byŭ / była in Belarusian (literally, 'was'). It was and still is used in daily speech, especially in rural areas. Being mostly unused in literature during Soviet times, it is now regaining popularity. Here is an example of usage: Ja vže buv pіšov, až raptom zhadav... (Ukrainian) and Ja ŭžo byŭ pajšoŭ, kali raptam zhadaŭ (Belarusian) I almost had gone already when I recalled...
In Slovenian, the pluperfect (predpreteklik, 'before the past') is formed with the verb 'to be' (biti) in past tense and the participle of the main verb. It is used to denote a completed action in the past before another action (Pred nekaj leti so bile vode poplavile vsa nabrežja Savinje, 'A few years ago, all the banks of Savinja River had been flooded) or, with a modal verb, a past event that should have happened (Moral bi ti bil povedati, 'I should have told you'). Its use is considered archaic and is used rarely even in the written literary language.
In Polish
, it is constructed with an auxiliary verb być 'to be' in a past tense, third person only. It is now old fashioned, used only in the formal register
. Example: Powinieneś był to zrobić You should have done it.
In Serbian
and Croatian
, the pluperfect ("pluskvamperfekt") is constructed with the past tense ("perfekt") of the verb to be¨("biti") plus the adjective form of the main verb.
For example: "Ja sam bio učio", which means, "I had been studying".
In Finnish
, the pluperfect (pluskvamperfekti) is constructed with an auxiliary verb olla 'to be', which is in the past tense. The primary verbs get the past participle endings -nyt/-nut in singular, -neet in plural forms (the 'n' assimilates with certain consonants) and -ttu/-tty/-tu/-ty in passive forms. Still, there are some irregularities, for example me olimme olleet we had been, the primary verb is irregular.
In Latin, the pluperfect (plus quam perfectum) is formed without an auxiliary verb in the active voice and with an auxiliary verb plus the perfect passive participle in the passive voice. For example, in the indicative mood, pecuniam mercatori dederat (He had given money to the merchant), and Pecunia mercatori datus erat (Money had been given to the merchant). The subjunctive mood is formed similarly (Dedisset and Datus sit, respectively). Often, an ablative absolute phrase
, using a noun and perfect participle in the ablative case, may be used where a pluperfect clause would be used in English. (Pecunia mercatori data, cessit emptor, When money had been given to the merchant, the buyer left.)
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, is a grammatical combination of past tense
Past tense
The past tense is a grammatical tense that places an action or situation in the past of the current moment , or prior to some specified time that may be in the speaker's past, present, or future...
with the perfect, itself a combination of tense
Grammatical tense
A tense is a grammatical category that locates a situation in time, to indicate when the situation takes place.Bernard Comrie, Aspect, 1976:6:...
and aspect
Grammatical aspect
In linguistics, the grammatical aspect of a verb is a grammatical category that defines the temporal flow in a given action, event, or state, from the point of view of the speaker...
, that exists in most Indo-European languages
Indo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major current languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and South Asia and also historically predominant in Anatolia...
though there is not one in Irish. It is used to refer to an event that had continuing relevance to a past time. Comrie classifies the pluperfect as an absolute-relative tense because it absolutely (not by context) establishes a deixis
Deixis
In linguistics, deixis refers to the phenomenon wherein understanding the meaning of certain words and phrases in an utterance requires contextual information. Words are deictic if their semantic meaning is fixed but their denotational meaning varies depending on time and/or place...
(the past event) and places the action relative to the deixis (before it).
In the sentence "A man who for years had thought he had reached the absolute limit of all possible suffering now found that suffering had no limits, and that he could suffer still more, and more intensely" (from Victor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning
Man's Search for Meaning
Man's Search for Meaning is a 1946 book by Viktor Frankl chronicling his experiences as a concentration camp inmate and describing his psychotherapeutic method of finding a reason to live...
), "had thought" and "had reached" are examples of the pluperfect. They refer to an event (a man thinking he has reached the limit of his capacity to suffer), which takes place before another event (the man discovering that his capacity to suffer has no limit), that are still relevant at the time of the later event. Because that second, subsequent event is itself a past event and the past tense
Past tense
The past tense is a grammatical tense that places an action or situation in the past of the current moment , or prior to some specified time that may be in the speaker's past, present, or future...
is used to refer to it ("a man...now found"), the pluperfect is needed to make it clear that the first event (reaching the limit) has taken place even earlier in the past.
Types of pluperfect
There are generally two types of pluperfect, corresponding to the two types of perfect:- Pluperfect of state, where the consequence of some event is associated with that event during a narration in the past tensePast tenseThe past tense is a grammatical tense that places an action or situation in the past of the current moment , or prior to some specified time that may be in the speaker's past, present, or future...
: "He saw that the door had opened, and children were running through it." is nearly the same as "...He saw that the door was open, and children...” A pluperfect of state is, in association to the fact of the action, midway between the past tense (the door opened yesterday) and the predicate adjective that is the past participle (the door has been open since yesterday). - Pluperfect of action, where a series of pluperfect sentences carry a narration. This pluperfect is allied more closely to the usual preteritePreteriteThe preterite is the grammatical tense expressing actions that took place or were completed in the past...
in English. It serves only to place a narration in the "more distant past", without determining its particular time or duration, as follows: "He had risen early that morning and had drunk coffee earlier than usual."
Examples from various languages
While some languages like Latin have special verb forms for the pluperfect and do not need to use auxiliary verbs, most modern European languages combine auxiliary verbs and past participles.In the English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, the pluperfect is often called the past perfect. It is formed by combining the auxiliary verb
Auxiliary verb
In linguistics, an auxiliary verb is a verb that gives further semantic or syntactic information about a main or full verb. In English, the extra meaning provided by an auxiliary verb alters the basic meaning of the main verb to make it have one or more of the following functions: passive voice,...
had with the past participle. While the English present perfect cannot be accompanied by an adverb precisely specifying when the action takes place, the same is not true of the English pluperfect: *"I have gone last Friday" is incorrect, whereas "I had gone the previous Friday" is correct.
In German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, the pluperfect (Plusquamperfekt or Vorvergangenheit, lit. pre-past) is used in much the same manner, normally in a nachdem sentence. The Plusquamperfekt is formed with the Partizip Perfekt (Partizip II) of the full lexical verb, plus the auxiliary verb haben or sein in its preterite
Preterite
The preterite is the grammatical tense expressing actions that took place or were completed in the past...
form, depending on the full lexical verb in question. For example: Nachdem ich aufgestanden war, ging ich ins Badezimmer. After I had got up, I went into the bathroom.
In Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
, the pluperfect (Voltooid verleden tijd) is formed similarly as in German: the voltooid deelwoord is combined with an auxiliary declination of hebben or zijn, depending on the full lexical verb: Voordat ik er erg in had, was het al twaalf uur geworden. - Before I noticed, it had become noon already. In addition, pluperfect is sometimes used instead of present perfect: Dat had ik al gezien (voordat jij het zag) - lit.: I had seen that (before you did). The parenthesized part is implied and, therefore, can be omitted.
In French the indicative pluperfect is formed by taking the appropriate form of the indicative imperfect of the auxiliaries avoir or être and adding the past participle, j'avais mangé.
In Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
there are two pluperfects in the indicative mood: the recent pluperfect (trapassato prossimo) is formed correspondingly to French by using the imperfect of the appropriate auxiliary verb (essere or avere) plus the past participle. For example, Ero affamato perché non avevo mangiato I was hungry because I had not eaten. The remote pluperfect (trapassato remoto) is formed by using the preterite
Preterite
The preterite is the grammatical tense expressing actions that took place or were completed in the past...
of the appropriate auxiliary verb plus the past participle. In the Italian consecutio temporum, the trapassato remoto should be used for completed actions in a clause subjugated to a clause whose verb is in the preterite
Preterite
The preterite is the grammatical tense expressing actions that took place or were completed in the past...
.
- Example (remote pluperfect): "Dopo che lo ebbi trovato, lo vendetti". (After finding it, I sold it)
- Example (recent pluperfect): "Dopo che lo avevo trovato, l'ho venduto". (After finding it, I used to sell it)
In Spanish, the pluperfect (pluscuamperfecto, or antecopretérito) is (similarly) formed from the imperfect of the auxiliary verb haber plus the past participle. For example, Había comido cuando vino mi madre. I had eaten when my mother came.
In Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
, there is a synthetic pluperfect (mais-que-perfeito). For example, Quando cheguei soube que o meu amigo morrera 'When I came I found out that my friend had died'. Its use has become mostly literary, however, and in spoken Portuguese, the pluperfect is usually formed using the auxiliary verb ter plus the past participle. For example, Quando cheguei soube que o meu amigo tinha morrido. A more formal way of expressing the pluperfect uses the verb "haver". For example: Quando cheguei soube que o meu amigo havia morrido.
In Judeo-Spanish, the Latin pluperfect forms with little alteration have been preserved (e.g. final /m/ and /t/ are dropped) to express this tense (pluskuamperfekto), which is identical in form to the imperfect subjunctive. It has a similar form to the Portuguese, thus the Portuguese example above in Jidyo is, Kuando yegí suve ke mi haver morera 'When I came I knew that my friend had died'. It remains the main spoken form, though in some varieties, similarly to Spanish or Portuguese, the pluperfect is formed using the auxiliary verbs tener or aver plus the past participle. For example, Kuando yegí suve ke mi haver tuve morido or Kuando yegí suve ke mi haver avía morido.
In Romanian
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
, the pluperfect (mai mult ca perfectul) is expressed without any auxiliary words, using a particular form of the verb, originated in the Latin pluperfect subjunctive. (compare Italian imperfect subjunctive Sembrava che Elsa non venisse with Romanian pluperfect Părea că Elsa nu venise). For example, in Când l-am întrebat, el văzuse deja filmul 'When I asked him, he had already seen the movie'. The verb văzuse is in the pluperfect form of a vedea 'to see'. Technically, this form is obtained from the singular third person form of the simple perfect tense by adding specific terminations for each person and number.
However, in northern Transylvania there is a regional way to state the pluperfect (that may reflect the German influence). The pluperfect is expressed by combining the auxiliary verb fost or the short version "fo'" (= "was" in English or "war" in German) with the participle, which (quite difficult to explain) is stated in its feminine form. Examples:
"o fost foastă" (or "o fo' foastă") = he had been; "am fost văzută" = I had been seen; "or fost venită" = they had come.
In Galician
Galician language
Galician is a language of the Western Ibero-Romance branch, spoken in Galicia, an autonomous community located in northwestern Spain, where it is co-official with Castilian Spanish, as well as in border zones of the neighbouring territories of Asturias and Castile and León.Modern Galician and...
, the pluperfect ( Pretérito pluscuamperfecto) is a simple tense formed by inflecting the verb: fuxiras you (sg.) had fled.
Unlike Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
, which today has only remnants of pluperfect, the Ukrainian language
Ukrainian language
Ukrainian is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. It is the official state language of Ukraine. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet....
and the Belarusian language
Belarusian language
The Belarusian language , sometimes referred to as White Russian or White Ruthenian, is the language of the Belarusian people...
still preserve a distinct pluperfect (давньоминулий час or запрошлы час – davn'omynulyj čas or zaprošły čas) that is formed by preceding the verb with buv / bula in Ukrainian and byŭ / była in Belarusian (literally, 'was'). It was and still is used in daily speech, especially in rural areas. Being mostly unused in literature during Soviet times, it is now regaining popularity. Here is an example of usage: Ja vže buv pіšov, až raptom zhadav... (Ukrainian) and Ja ŭžo byŭ pajšoŭ, kali raptam zhadaŭ (Belarusian) I almost had gone already when I recalled...
In Slovenian, the pluperfect (predpreteklik, 'before the past') is formed with the verb 'to be' (biti) in past tense and the participle of the main verb. It is used to denote a completed action in the past before another action (Pred nekaj leti so bile vode poplavile vsa nabrežja Savinje, 'A few years ago, all the banks of Savinja River had been flooded) or, with a modal verb, a past event that should have happened (Moral bi ti bil povedati, 'I should have told you'). Its use is considered archaic and is used rarely even in the written literary language.
In Polish
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
, it is constructed with an auxiliary verb być 'to be' in a past tense, third person only. It is now old fashioned, used only in the formal register
Register (linguistics)
In linguistics, a register is a variety of a language used for a particular purpose or in a particular social setting. For example, when speaking in a formal setting an English speaker may be more likely to adhere more closely to prescribed grammar, pronounce words ending in -ing with a velar nasal...
. Example: Powinieneś był to zrobić You should have done it.
In Serbian
Serbian language
Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....
and Croatian
Croatian language
Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...
, the pluperfect ("pluskvamperfekt") is constructed with the past tense ("perfekt") of the verb to be¨("biti") plus the adjective form of the main verb.
For example: "Ja sam bio učio", which means, "I had been studying".
In Finnish
Finnish language
Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
, the pluperfect (pluskvamperfekti) is constructed with an auxiliary verb olla 'to be', which is in the past tense. The primary verbs get the past participle endings -nyt/-nut in singular, -neet in plural forms (the 'n' assimilates with certain consonants) and -ttu/-tty/-tu/-ty in passive forms. Still, there are some irregularities, for example me olimme olleet we had been, the primary verb is irregular.
In Latin, the pluperfect (plus quam perfectum) is formed without an auxiliary verb in the active voice and with an auxiliary verb plus the perfect passive participle in the passive voice. For example, in the indicative mood, pecuniam mercatori dederat (He had given money to the merchant), and Pecunia mercatori datus erat (Money had been given to the merchant). The subjunctive mood is formed similarly (Dedisset and Datus sit, respectively). Often, an ablative absolute phrase
Latin grammar
The grammar of Latin, like that of other ancient Indo-European languages, is highly inflected; consequently, it allows for a large degree of flexibility in choosing word order...
, using a noun and perfect participle in the ablative case, may be used where a pluperfect clause would be used in English. (Pecunia mercatori data, cessit emptor, When money had been given to the merchant, the buyer left.)
| English | German | Latin | Romanian | Portuguese | Spanish | Italian | French | ٍGreek (Modern) | Bulgarian | Macedonian | Polish (extinct) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I had heard | ich hatte gehört | audiveram | auzisem / am fost auzit(ă) | eu ouvira / tinha ouvido / havia ouvido | había oído | avevo sentito | j'avais entendu | είχα ακούσει | бях чул | бев слушнал | ja słyszałem/-am był/była |
| you had heard | du hattest gehört | audiverās | auziseşi / ai fost auzit(ă) | tu ouviras / tinhas ouvido / havias ouvido | habías oído | avevi sentito | tu avais entendu | είχες ακούσει | бе(ше) чул | беше слушнал | ty słyszałeś/-aś był/była |
| he/she had heard | er/sie hatte gehört | audiverat | auzise / a fost auzit(ă) | ele/ela ouvira / tinha ouvido / havia ouvido | había oído | aveva sentito | il/elle avait entendu | είχε ακούσει | бе(ше) чул | беше слушнал/-а/-о | on/ona/ono słyszał/-a/-o była/była/było |
| we had heard | wir hatten gehört | audiverāmus | auziserăm / am fost auziti | nós ouvíramos / tínhamos ouvido / havíamos ouvido | habíamos oído | avevamo sentito | nous avions entendu | είχαμε ακούσει | бяхме чули | бевме слушнале | my słyszeliśmy/-ałyśmy byli/były |
| you had heard | ihr hattet gehört | audiverātis | auziserăţi / aţi fost auziti | vós ouvíreis / tínheis ouvido / havíeis ouvido | habíais oído | avevate sentito | vous aviez entendu | είχατε ακούσει | бяхте чули | бевте слушнале | wy słyszeliście/--ałyście byli/były |
| they had heard | sie hatten gehört | audiverant | auziseră / au fost auziţi | eles ouviram / tinham ouvido / haviam ouvido | habían oído | avevano sentito | ils/elles avaient entendu | είχαν ακούσει | бяха чули | беа слушнале | oni, one słyszeli/-ały byli/były |
See also
- future tenseFuture tenseIn grammar, a future tense is a verb form that marks the event described by the verb as not having happened yet, but expected to happen in the future , or to happen subsequent to some other event, whether that is past, present, or future .-Expressions of future tense:The concept of the future,...
- grammatical aspectGrammatical aspectIn linguistics, the grammatical aspect of a verb is a grammatical category that defines the temporal flow in a given action, event, or state, from the point of view of the speaker...
- perfect
- past tensePast tenseThe past tense is a grammatical tense that places an action or situation in the past of the current moment , or prior to some specified time that may be in the speaker's past, present, or future...
- pluperfect progressive tensePluperfect progressive tenseThe pluperfect progressive is a combination of perfective and progressive aspects and past tense in some Indo-European languages, showing an event that started in the past and continued at least until another time in the past...
- present tensePresent tenseThe present tense is a grammatical tense that locates a situation or event in present time. This linguistic definition refers to a concept that indicates a feature of the meaning of a verb...
- preteritePreteriteThe preterite is the grammatical tense expressing actions that took place or were completed in the past...
(simple past) - Present perfect
External links
- Grammar Tutorials - a column overview of the English tenses