Thank you SuStel for having the patience to explain all this. As a result of this thread, I'm actually for the first time optimistic that I'll succeed in reducing the frequency I misuse aspect. But there's something which I still wonder. jIH:
6. If I'm looking back from the present on quality verbs, but the quality described can't be described by the "used to", perfective is used: In the past the water has been hot In the past there was just one (or maybe two/three/more) occasion(s) when the water was hot (the second sentence describes the intended meaning) pa'logh tujpu' bIQ In the past the water often has been hot pa'logh pIj tujpu' bIQ SuStel: This one I don't agree with. The words used to aren't necessary to avoid perfective; they're just a convenient, but incomplete, test to see if you're thinking in terms of perfective or not. Besides, I don't see why the water has often been hot couldn't be said as the water often used to be hot. So I don't think you're looking at used to in quite the right way.
Reading your reply, at first I couldn't understand the reason which made you disagree. But then I read your next comments: SuStel:
it means if you want to describe possessing a quality in the past, you're describing having that quality, not having completed having that quality Even if you're describing water that was only hot two or three times, you're still describing the being hot, not a completed action of being hot
(the former comment is from the < {je} "too" applying to the adverb > thread http://lists.kli.org/pipermail/tlhingan-hol-kli.org/2022-March/019586.html)) And these two comments made me understand. But there's still something I'm wondering. When would it be appropriate for us to put the {-pu'} on a quality verb? Because -if my understanding is correct- I can't think of an occasion when something like this would be needed. So could you write an example where the {-pu'} would be necessary on a quality verb? Or perhaps does voragh know of a Ca'Non example where we have the {-pu'} on a quality/stative verb? luis.chaparro:
I don't know much about Modern Greek, but I think you distinguish between imperfective and perfective in the past with παρατατικός (imperfective) and αόριστος (perfective). [...] Doesn't it work with Modern Greek?
I wish I could answer, but the problem with me is that I don't know nor can I understand grammar. Whatever English, German, and Klingon I ever learned, I learned by following examples. Perhaps it sounds strange, but it is true. As I regularly say "at the brain factory, someone forgot to install in my mind the ability-to-understand-grammar circuit". -- Dana'an https://sacredtextsinklingon.wordpress.com/ Ζεὺς ἦν, Ζεὺς ἐστίν, Ζεὺς ἔσσεται· ὦ μεγάλε Ζεῦ