Recognising Tenses

The mains features of the imperfect tense are as follows:  It has an augment at the beginning of the word - ἔ/ἐ There is a recurrence of the thematic vowels: o, ε, ε, o, ε, o The middle endings are as follows: FORM ONE: -μαι, -σαι, -ται, -μεθα, -σθε, -νται FORM TWO: -μην, -σο, -το, -μεθα, -σθε, -ντο 

EXAMPLE OF THE IMPERFECT ACTIVE TENSE

Contracted Verb Example:ἐ-δήλο-ον > ἐδήλουν

ἔ-παυ-ον

Uncontracted Verb Example:

The main features of the future tense are as follows: The future Stem of a verb is typically formed by adding σ to the present stem: παύ-ω 'I stop' παυ+σ = παύσ-ω 'I shall stop

Helping identify the Imperfect!The Imperfect is based on the PRESENT stem of the verb. As we have seen you add an augment to the beginning of the stem, and add the correct imperfect personal ending. The best way to work out if the verb is in the imperfect is to work it into the PERFECT tense from the imperfect! ERMAGERD!

Verb Augments with a LONG VOWELIf the Imperfect form begins with a LONG vowel, the PRESENT STEM of the verb could be a bit more DIFFICULT to ascertain :(ἠκούομεν has the ending -ομεν, BUT what of ἠ-κού-?The initial ἠ must represent the AUGMENT, but what could it represent? The answer is that it could represent α,ε or η in the PRESENTTherefore, the PRESENT stem of the verb could be ἀκου-, ἐκου- or ἠκουWe recognise the stem for LISTEN!!! YAY!

παύ-ω 'I stop' παυ+σ = παύσ-ω 'I shall stop'

Typical Form of the Future Tense:

Different stem forms for the future:

(a) β, π, πτ and ϕ combine with σ to produce ψ:πέμπ-ω 'I send' πέμπ+σ= πέμψ-ω 'I shall send'

(b) γ, κ, σκ, χ (and usually ττ) combine with σ to produce ξ:δέχ-ομαι 'I receive' δέχ + σ = δέξ-ομαι 'I shall receive'

(c) δ, ζ, θ and τ are simply replaced with σ:πείθ-ω 'I persuade' πείθ+σ = πείσ-ω 'I shall persuade'

List of IRREGULAR FUTURE verb forms

βαίνω ---> βήσομαι 'I shall go' γίγνομαι ---> γενήσομαι 'I shall become' γιγνώσκω ---> γνώσομαι 'I shall get to know' λαμβάνω ---> λήψομαι 'I shall take' μανθάνω ---> μαθήσομαι 'I shall learn' ὁράς ---> ὄψομαι 'I shall see' πάσχω ---> πείσομαι 'I shall suffer, experience'

The main features of the aorist tense are as follows: As we have seen the first aorist stem is typically formed by adding σα to the present stem: παύ-ω > παυ-σα. On to this is added the augment (ἔ+παυ-σα). 

Consonant Stems

When σα is added to verbs with stems ending in consonants the following changes occur (note that these changes are, for the most part, IDENTICAL TO THOSE FOUND IN THE FUTURE TENSE)

γ, κ and χ combine with σ to produce ξ: δέχ-ομαι 'I receive' ---> ἒδεξάμην 'I received'

δ, ζ, θ and τ are simply replaced with σ: πείθω 'I persuade' ---> ἒπείσα 'I persuaded'

β, π, πτ and ϕ combine with σ to produce ψ: πέμπ-ω 'I send' ---> ἒπεμψα 'I sent'

Recognising the Imperfect tense in ancient greek

Recognising the Future Tense in Ancient Greek

Recognising the Aorist Tense in Ancient Greek