My biggest stumbling block in learning to speak Thai is getting used to using aspect words, rather than tense, to express WHEN something happened.

In English and French, tense is used to tell when things happened in relation to other things; it contextualizes things temporally.

In contrast, aspect uses words to give temporal qualities to an action/event - has it started? How long did/will it take? Is it completed? Etc.

Takes a huge adjustment in thought >.>