Inflected Language Quotes

“Creoles tend to express variations in time by having a string of helping verbs rather than by having complicated word formation rules. In other words, they are more like English in this respect than like a language such as Italian:

English: I thought she might have been sleeping.
Italian: Pensavo che dormisse.

The idea of potential (in the English "might"), completed or whole action (in the English "have"), and stretched-out activity (in the English "been") that go with "sleeping" are all expressed in the ending on the Italian verb dormisse. (Dorm is the root for "sleep"; isse is the ending that carries all the meaning about the time frame.)”
― Donna Jo Napoli, Language Matters: A Guide to Everyday Questions About Language