Word.ws English Dictionary

compound tense

compound tense noun: a tense or tense-like verb form that is constructed analytically, i.e. with an auxiliary verb added (like the perfect tense in English or French), not synthetically (through simple inflection of a base form). Contrasted with a simple tense (like the English simple past or French passé simple.

Noun

compound tense (uncountable)

  1. A tense or tense-like verb form that is constructed analytically, i.e. with an auxiliary verb added (like the perfect tense in English or French), not synthetically (through simple inflection of a base form). Contrasted with a simple tense (like the English simple past or French passé simple.

Questions about compound tense

What does compound tense mean?
Compound tense means a tense or tense-like verb form that is constructed analytically, i.e. with an auxiliary verb added (like the perfect tense in English or French), not synthetically (through simple inflection of a base form). Contrasted with a simple tense (like the English simple past or French passé simple.
What part of speech is compound tense?
Compound tense is a noun.

Words near compound tense in the dictionary

  1. compound proportions
  2. compound sentence
  3. compound sentences
  4. compound symbol
  5. compound symbols
  6. compound tense
  7. compound time
  8. compound word
  9. compound words
  10. compoundable
  11. compounded

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: compound tense (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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