Perfect (grammar)
The
perfect is a verb form found in certain languages. The exact meaning of the term differs depending on which language is being described, but in principle the perfect is used to indicate that an action or circumstance occurred earlier than the present time, often focusing attention on the resulting state rather than on the occurrence itself. An example of a perfect construction is given by the English sentence
I have made dinner: although this gives information about a prior action, the focus is likely to be on the present consequences of that action. The word
perfect in this sense means "completed". In traditional grammar, particularly with regard to Latin and Ancient Greek, the term
perfect is used for a particular conjugated verb form, traditionally considered to be one of the tenses, although in modern analysis it is seen as combining the expression of tense with aspectual information. The Greek perfect contrasted with the aorist and the imperfect, and thus referred to completed events with present consequences like the English "have/has ".