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imperfect tense

noun

Simple meaning

A tense of verbs used in describing action that is on-going.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

ihmpurfihkttehns

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ɪmˈpɝfɪktˈtɛns

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. grammar

    A tense of verbs used in describing action that is on-going

  2. grammar

    A tense used to describe a past action that is ongoing, incomplete or continuous, or coincident with another action.

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

This meaning: A tense of verbs used in describing action that is on-going

Used this way, imperfect tense is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a grammar or language-study use: it describes how language works, so it appears in teaching and reference writing.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Specialist/technical
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Specialized
Connotation
Clinical and technical
Usage feel
Technical and specialized

Where it naturally appears

  • Academic writing
  • Education/classroom
  • Technical/specialist writing

Usage note

In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.