Greek

Lesson 13 Verb Chart and notes

Tenses

Notes:

• The “Past Progressive” is the same as the “Imperfect” – use whichever term you’re most comfortable with
• The Greeks did NOT view the Present Perfective (“Perfect”) as a Past tense – notice that it has no augment (p. 130); *this is especially hard for native speakers of English and for those who have had Latin, but the Present Perfect stresses the present result of the past action
• The “Past Perfective” is the same as the “Pluperfect” – again, use whichever term you like
• Greek, unlike English, does not distinguish between Progressive and Aorist aspects in the Present and Future Active, so there is only one form for Present Active and one for Future Active
• The Future Perfect is so rare that most 1st year books don’t even teach it
• Notice that all the tenses in the Progressive column begin with the stem from the 1st principal part (in RED below):
  • Present: παυ ω
    Tense signs (in GREEN below) are then added for past and future:
  • Imperfect: ε  παυ  ον
  • Future: παυ σ  ω