English
English is an example of a language with no general imperfective. The English progressive is used to describe ongoing events such as "The rain was beating down". Habitual situations do not have their own verb form, but the construction "used to" conveys past habitual action, as in "I used to ski". 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".
Read more about this topic: Imperfective Aspect
Famous quotes containing the word english:
“The “Communism” of the English intellectual is something explicable enough. It is the patriotism of the deracinated.”
—George Orwell (1903–1950)
“So is the English Parliament provincial. Mere country bumpkins, they betray themselves, when any more important question arises for them to settle, the Irish question, for instance,—the English question why did I not say? Their natures are subdued to what they work in. Their “good breeding” respects only secondary objects.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“What else has been English news for so long a season? What else, of late years, has been England to us,—to us who read books, we mean?... Carlyle alone, since the death of Coleridge, has kept the promise of England. It is the best apology for all the bustle and the sin of commerce, that it has made us acquainted with the thoughts of this man.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)