The perfect, although it implies the performance of the action in past time, yet states only that it stands completed at the present time. This explains why the perfect is classed with the present as a primary tense, that is, as a tense of present time. 45. The perfect and the pluperfect may be expressed by the perfect participle with the present and imperfect of εἰμί. Here, however, each part of the compound generally retains its own signification, so that this form expresses more fully the continuance