Arabic and English Sentence Patterns: A Comparative Guide

11 | P a g e past present future --- E /R/P----------------------- I have lived in Portland twenty years. The coincidence of R and P can make the aspect seem ambiguous. The twenty years have been completed, but the action could continue, giving the present perfect a completed/uncompleted (ongoing) sense on occasion. As in the following sentence, this is especially true with stative verbs, which denote “states (mental and physical), relations, and attributes,” such as know, believe, resemble, be hungry, own . 14 past present future --- E /R/P----------------------- I have known that for some time. This same completed/ongoing sense is true of the perfect progressive aspect. In the sentence “Tom had been reading the book,” Tom had probably ceased reading at the moment referred to, but we do not know for how long. He might have begun reading again. 15 3.2 ARABIC Arabic is generally characterized as having two basic tenses, perfect ( اﻟﻤﺎﺿﻲ ) and imperfect ( اﻟﻤُ ﻀﺎرع ). 15F15F 16 These terms, however, relate more directly to aspect than to tense. As with English, conjugation or form is a clearer designation. We will continue to use perfect and imperfect for consistency with Arabic textbooks, with the following qualifications. The Arabic perfect ( ﻓَﻌﻞَ pattern) typically denotes a completed (finished) action, event, process, or state; the imperfect ( ﯾَﻔْﻌﻞُ pattern) an action which is ongoing (unfinished) at some point or during some interval. These two forms, though,