Aspect refers to the kind of action of a verb.
There are three basic aspects in Hindi: habitual aspect, continuous aspect, and perfective aspect, and additionally Hindi has “perfect” verb forms, which have another kind of aspect.
Habitual Aspect
The habitual aspect refers to actions that are habitual, general, repeated, customary, etc. “I eat Indian food every week”. This refers to a habitual activity. “I like Indian food” – this refers to a general statement.
Refer to the articles about the habitual verb forms for more information:
The Present Habitual Verb Form
Continuous Aspect
The continuous aspects refers to a continuous, ongoing, progressive action. “I am eating some Indian food”. This refers to an action that is in progress.
Refer to the articles about the continuous verb forms for more information:
The Present Continuous Verb Form
Perfective Aspect
The perfective aspect refers to actions that are viewed “from outside” as a simple completed whole, without any reference to any “internal” structure. “I ate some Indian food”. This is a simple statement about some completed action, without any reference to the kind of action.
Refer to the articles about past perfective verb forms for more information:
Perfect Verb Forms
The perfect verb form refers to an action that is completed and results in some state. “I have eaten Indian food before”. The person performed some action in the past (eating), and now a state results (namely, the person is in the state of “having eaten Indian food”).
Refer to the articles about the perfective verb forms for more information: