Last night I recorded a video “lecture” at my office to help.
In chapter 24 we learn that there’s more than one way to spell an Aorist (there’s two).
The endings you’ve learned will tell you Person and Number (4 quadrants of 6 endings each, 24 endings).
The endings also help you determine if something is Present/Future (Primary Endings) or “Past Tense” Imperfect/Aorist (Secondary Endings).
Also, the endings help point to whether the verb is Active or Passive/Middle
What you need to be able to determine is what Tense these verbs are. It’s multiple choice.
Present tense is when the word is in the form you memorized the vocabulary word, though it may have a different ending. Remember, the lexical form is always Present-Active-Indicative-First Person-Singular.
Future tense will have a -σ- between the stem and the ending. It could also have an -εσ- if it is a liquid verb. In these cases, the σ may drop out or combine with other consonants, but you can see that a σ was added.
Imperfect tense is the “past tense” but continual action “I was kicking the ball.” Imperfect uses the secondary endings and has an ε- augment on the front of the word. It may combine with an α- on the front of a word to become an η- but you can recognize that there was an ε- added. The secondary endings also have the ε- added to the front.
Aorist tense verbs also use the secondary endings, with augments. Aorist is also “past tense” but it has an undefined aspect, so “I kicked the ball” (not “I was kicking the ball” continual action). One way to spot them is that they use a different stem than the Present, Future, and Imperfect tenses, and have the augment on the front with the secondary endings. You know the stem for the Present tense, that’s the way you memorized the vocabulary word (e.g. βαλλω) so if the stem is not the same (e.g. βαλ in stead of βαλλ) then it’s Aorist.
In english we have two different classes of words when it comes to how we spell them in past tense. How do you make “kick” past tense? You simply add -ed. How do you make “eat” past tense? You change it to “ate.” This doesn’t affect meaning, it’s just two different classes of spelling the past tense. Greek has this too.
The Aorist tense where the verb uses a different stem than the present tense (see above) is called Second Aorist. That’s just one pattern of spelling, and the more rare one.
The Aorist tense where the verb uses the same stem as Present, Future, and Imperfect tenses is called First Aorist.
Think about that, if it has the same argument (ε-) on the front, and the same secondary endings as the Imperfect, then there has to be something to make it different. This is Chapter 23, First Aorist. A -σα- is added between the stem and the ending.
Don’t let this confuse you. If you see a -σ- added in the middle of a verb it is Future, unless that -σ- is followed immediately by an -α-. This is one that will almost never be augmented. If you see a -σα- between the stem and the ending, it is Aorist (First Aorist, to be exact, and you don’t have to be that exact).
Vocabulary is becoming even more important. You’ve gotta know what the original word was so you can recognize the changes being made. You can do this, but you can’t cram this. Vocab Vocab Vocab!
