Grammar.................Verb

Question

What is the difference between a gerund and a perfective verb?

Philip · Accepted Answer

I'm sure that what you are calling a 'perfective' verb is what I call a 'finite' verb, which indicates person and time (which an infinitive verb does not).

So, seeing carries no person or time, but both could be implied by what follows.

[Seeing the deer in the road, I swerved to avoid hitting it.]

[Playing the theatre for the first time, the actor will be uncertain of the accoustics of the room.]

[Eating lots of vegetables, you will have better health.]

Avangi · Answer

The term may also be used in linguistics in treating the subject of "aspect." The perfective aspect deals with actions which have been completed, or something like that.

I think the future and the present perfect verb tenses would be excluded.

So it wouldn't make sense to describe a particular verb (in the lexical sense) as "perfective."

I don't think you'd say, "This is a perfective verb, and that is an imperfective verb."

As Philip suggests, the verbs involved would at least have to be in a finite form.

Grammar.................Verb

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