Lesson 6 | About Verbs
[3] Introducing Aspect
Let’s unpack the idea of “aspect” before we learn another worship song and practice translating perfect and imperfect verbs.
The meaning of the perfect and imperfect aspect
The meaning of the perfect aspect is best understood in contrast to its counterpart—the imperfect aspect. While scholars have tried to describe the difference between the perfect and imperfect in many ways, perhaps the most helpful distinction is as follows.
perfect = viewed as complete
imperfect = viewed as in progress
By using the perfect aspect, the author is viewing the action of the verb as a completed whole. On the other hand, the imperfect aspect sees the action as in progress. For this reason, the perfect aspect will be used far more often to represent an action in the past.
But the perfect aspect is not restricted to only describing past actions, since there are other instances where it is helpful to portray an action as complete even though that action resides in the present or future, or is timeless. For example, when an author wants to describe the state of something, he often does so with the perfect aspect. Likewise, prophecy is sometimes represented in the perfect aspect as a way for the author to indicate its certain nature. Finally, you will find the perfect aspect used frequently in timeless proverbs.
Since the imperfect aspect sees the action as in progress, it is most often used to represent present or future actions, though it is not restricted to this.
The imperfect is also commonly used to represent the subjunctive (“may you ____”), contingency (“if you ____, …”), customary actions (“you always ____”), or permission (“you may ____”).
How to translate the perfect and imperfect aspects
When translating Biblical Hebrew into English, we must attempt to translate aspect into tense, since English grammar requires it.
But we must also give great attention to the context, and seek to think about the aspect more than the inferred tense. In other words, aspect informs tense, but does not dictate it. If we pay attention to the context, we will usually gain a clear understanding of the timeframe the author has in mind, and we will be able to confidently choose which tense to use in our English translation.
So you will normally translate perfect verbs with the English past tense, and imperfect verbs with the English future tense. But more important is the aspect. To translate the perfect, view the action as a completed whole, whether it has happened or is a present reality. And to translate the imperfect, view the action as in progress, whether it is happening or will happen.
Aspect informs tense, but does not dictate it.
We must also acknowledge, however, that the intended timeframe of an action is not always clear. For this reason, we find at times that one English translation will translate a particular verb into the future tense, while another will translate it into the past tense. This situation leads us to an important challenge.
How to think in terms of aspect
Our goal is not simply to translate Hebrew into English as we read it and then to think about our translation. Rather, our goal is to think about the Hebrew text itself. And part of this goal relates to aspect. Instead of considering the text in a tense-centric way, our aim is to think about it in an aspect-centric way.
How do we learn to think in an aspect-centric way? There are no magic bullets here. The only way to think Hebrew is to immerse yourself in the Hebrew text through reading and worship.