The perfect aspect expresses that an action has been completed by a certain time, such as the present, past, or future. It is formed using auxiliary verbs like "have" and the past participle of the main verb. The present perfect, past perfect, and future perfect tenses are used to specifically indicate if the action was completed by or before the present, a time in the past, or a time in the future, respectively. Key uses of each tense include relating completed actions to other time frames or events.