The imperfective (abbreviated IPFV or more ambiguously IMPV) is a grammatical aspect used to describe ongoing, habitual, repeated, or similar semantic roles, whether that situation occurs in the past, present, or future.
The imperfective contrasts with the perfective aspect, which is used to describe actions viewed as a complete whole.
The English progressive is used to describe ongoing events, but can still be used in past tense, such as "The rain was beating down".
Unlike in languages with a general imperfective, in English the simple past tense can be used for situations presented as ongoing, such as The rain beat down continuously through the night.
[2][3] The table below shows three verbs होना honā (to be), करना karnā (to do), and मरना marnā (to die) in their aspectual infintive forms using different copulas.
[4] Aspect Aspect Aspect honā to be hotā honā to happen hotā rêhnā to keep happening hotā jānā to keep on happening hotā ānā to have been happening ho rahā honā to be happening ho rahā rêhnā to stay happening karnā to do kartā honā to be doing kartā rêhnā to stay doing kartā jānā to keep doing kartā ānā to have been doing kar rahā honā to be doing kar rahā rêhnā to stay doing marnā to die martā honā to be dying martā rêhnā to stay dying martā jānā to keep dying martā ānā to have been dying mar rahā honā to be dying mar rahā rêhnā to stay dying Some translations are approximate, and the nuance cannot be expressed exactly in English.
The opposite aspect is the perfective (in Ancient Greek, generally called the aorist), which views a situation as a simple whole, without interior composition.
"), with the perfective describing foregrounded actions within that scene ("Suddenly, a man burst into the room, ran over to the table, and grabbed the gun.").
This aspectual distinction is not inherent to the events themselves, but is decided by how the speaker views them or wishes to present them.
Georgian and Bulgarian, for example, have parallel perfective-imperfective and aorist-imperfect forms, the latter restricted to the past tense.
For example, an imperfect perfective is used in Bulgarian for a simple action that is repeated or habitual:[10] vechereveningsedn-eshesit.PFV-PST.IPFVnaonchardak-averanda-DEFvecher sedn-eshe na chardak-aevening sit.PFV-PST.IPFV on veranda-DEFIn the evening, he would sit down on the veranda.Here each sitting is an unanalyzed whole, a simple event, so the perfective root of the verb sedn 'sat' is used.
However, the clause as a whole describes an ongoing event conceived of as having internal structure, so the imperfective suffix -eshe is added.