Refers to verbs. English verb phrases can tell you when something happened - e.g. past, present - but also how the speaker views that action - as complete or as ongoing: I spoke to him last week (complete)/ I was speaking to him yesterday (ongoing).

a property of verbs or sentences, which refers primarily to the duration or type of activity described, e.g. the distinction between Sam sang and Sam was singing.

the beginning or duration or completion or repetition of the action of a verb

a grammatical category that helps us to understand the way the event described by a verb should be viewed

Impressionistically, relating to the way in which an action or state is viewed: continuous, repeated, within fixed limits, etc. The difference between the Imperfect and Preterite tenses in Spanish is usually thought of as an aspectual difference, though several other verb-forms, and especially the periphrastic verb-forms, have aspectual values.

a feature of verbs - obscure, but vaguely like tense (see VIIc) the marker used in the lexicon to label Coordinating conjunctions (see IXb) or interjections

The progressive rule [Be+Verb+ing] denotes an activity that is not yet completed (i.e., in progress) (e.g., She is studying French). Sometimes referred to as the imperfective. The imperfective or progressive participle {-ing} is sometimes called the present participle. The perfect rule [Have+Verb+Past Participle] denotes an activity that has been completed (marks perfection): (e.g., She has studied French). (See past participle).

The components of a full transaction al situation, being not independents, are aspects. The word is etymologically correct; the verb "aspect" is "to look out." See Phase.

Aspect refers to the way an action denoted by a verb should be viewed with respect to time. See also