Introduction

We use perfect tenses when we want to emphasize the consequences of an event or focus on the resulting state after the event.

A perfect tense (abbreviated perf or prf) is a grammatical form used to describe a past event with present relevance, or a present state resulting from a past situation. For example, “I have put it on the table” implies both that I put the object on the table and that it is still there; “I have been to France” conveys that this is a part of my experience as of now; and “I have lost my wallet” implies that this loss is troublesome at the present moment. (wikipedia)

In English we're not as strict with using the perfect tense. In fact it can sound a little formal or bookish to always say things like "I've lost my wallet" (perfect) instead of "I lost my wallet" (simple past). In Pashto however, this distinction is very normal and common, and you will see the perfect form used whenever it's important to talk about a state resulting from the action.

Comparing Simple Past to Perfect

With the simple past tense we're talking about an event happening. We're just relaying the fact that something happened, without talking about the consequences of that event.

With a perfect tense, we're talking about the result of an event. We're saying that something has happened, and therefore there's an effect on the situation.

How to make perfect tenses 🧪

Earlier we talked about how equatives and verbs are totally different in Pashto. Well now we're going to do something very crazy. To make the perfect forms we are going to combine verbs and equatives. 👨🏻‍🔬😮

To make the perfect forms we take the past participle of the verb and add an equative block next to it. For example, with the verb تلل - tlul (to go) we could say:

Now instead of one verb block, we have two blocks that have to agree with the king of the VP.

1. The past participle تللی - tlúlay
2. The equative یم - yum

Both of these need to agree with the king . To do that we need to:

1. Inflect the past participle
2. Choose the right equative

Inflecting the Past Participle

The past participle will always follow the #2 inflection pattern because it ends with an unstressed ی - ay. So, depending on what the king is you need to choose the right inflection to agree with the gender (masculine or feminine) and number (singular or plural) of the king.

	Masculine	Feminine
Singular (Plain)	تللی tlúlay	تللې tlúle
Plural (Inflected)	تللي tlúlee	تللې tlúle

So this sentence will change slightly if a woman says it.

In that case the king, زه - zu (I), will be feminine, so:

1. The past participle تللی - tlúlay will be given the feminine form تللې - tlúle because it agrees with زه - zu (I (f.)) which is feminine singular.
2. The equative یم - yum stays the same.

How would we say "We have gone" ? Try to make this sentence by making the two blocks agree with مونږ - moonG.

1. Inflect the past participle تللی - tlulay
2. Choose the right equative

Show Answer

PsPhon.

Full

No

Subject

moonG

NP (1st pers. pl. m.)

we (m. pl.)

long

tlúlee

VBlock

masc plur.

yoo

VBlock

1st pers. pl. m.

We (m. pl.) have gone

Actually the answer changes depending on whether the "we" in masculine or feminine! (Mixed groups are always considered masculine.) Press the above the answer and adjust it to see how it changes when you use a feminine "we."

Let's look at some examples of other intransitive verbs with all the different persons:

That seems like a pretty intimidating chart! But it gets simpler if we remember that we are just making the two blocks (past participle and equative) agree with the king of the phrase. Also notice how there's a pattern with the participle inflection that repeats every two lines. 🤓

Examples

Have a look at the examples below, and notice how both the past participle and the equative blocks agree with the king of the phrase. Perfects are considered past-tense so they will follow the same VP structure as other past tense forms, meaning that:

• with intransitive verbs the subject is king
• with transitive verbs the object is king

Also, you can shorten these VPs in the same way as you do with other verb forms, but you may notice some interesting changes because with the perfect there are two verb blocks.

Intransitive Examples

Transitive Examples

With transitive verbs everything works the same, but we follow the VP structure for past-tense transitive verbs meaning that now:

1. The subject will inflect
2. The object is king
   • The two verb blocks (past participle and equative) will agree with the object

Negatives with the perfect

To make perfect forms negative you add a نه - nú block, just as you would with any other verb. But interestingly, the past participle and equative blocks switch places.

You can also say the negative without swapping the order of the past participle and equative, for example زه تللی نه یم - zu tlúlay nú yum but that makes it more emphatically negative, kind of like if you were to say, "I have NOT gone" in a loud voice.

Try editing the examples above and making them negative. Notice how the different forms are shortened with the نه - nú block in there.

Other forms of perfect

So far we have only made perfect forms using the present equative. This form with the present equative is called the present perfect because it's talking about things that happened in the past but have an effect on the present situation. But actually, we can use any of the 8 equatives with the perfect which gives a whole new gamut of expressive super-powers. 💪 Read on...