vormtijdige

Vormtijdige is a term used in linguistics, particularly in Dutch-language grammar literature, to describe verb forms that encode temporal meaning through the morphology of the verb itself. In this sense, vormtijdige tenses are inflectional or synthetic, expressing tense by affixes or internal vowel changes on the verb, rather than by auxiliary verbs or separate particles.

The concept forms a contrast with periphrastic or analytic tenses, where tense is indicated by auxiliary verbs together with participles or adverbial elements. Some linguists treat vormtijdige as a subtype of morphological tense, as opposed to periphrastic or analytic tenses. The label is more common in descriptive grammar and typology and may not be universal across languages.

Examples from natural languages illustrate the idea. In English, the simple past for regular verbs, as in walked, is a morphologically marked past tense form, though English also uses periphrastic constructions like has walked. In German, forms such as ging express past tense through inflection of the verb rather than solely by auxiliary verbs. Spanish marks tenses with verb endings, for instance hablaba (I was speaking) or hablaré (I will speak). Dutch likewise employs inflected past forms in certain contexts, but the language often combines morphology with auxiliary constructions for perfect tenses. The term vormtijdige helps linguists discuss a spectrum from heavily inflected systems to predominantly analytic ones.

See also: grammar, tense, morphology, periphrasis, synthetic tense, Dutch grammar.