Aorist Indicatives
As you recall, present indicatives are verbs used to indicate action or being in the present time. These verbs have various ending on them that mark them for person and number. Look at the following examples.
- λύω τὸν ὄνον. (I untie the donkey.)
- λύεις τὸν ὄνον. (You untie the donkey.)
In those sentences, the action λύειν is in the present time relative to the speaker. The endings tell us that it was I that untied the donkey in the first sentence and you who untied it in the second. We know this because of the endings on the verb.
The same idea happens when we indicate action or being in the past time. The simple or default way to indicate past actions or events is to use the aorist indicative, or ἀόριστος χρόνος in Greek.1
As you remember, present indicatives can be active (-ω, -μι) or middle (-μαι). There are actually three groups, or voices, in the aorist. These are active, middle, and passive. For now, we are going to mainly focus on the active as we look at the broader morphological patterns. We will return to the concepts entailed in the voices later.
There are several ways a verb can be marked as aorist. If a verb is an -ω verb, it will follow one of two patterns in the aorist: 1st aorist or 2nd aorist. If a verb is a -μι verb, it will follow another pattern in the aorist. And since aorist indicative are marked for past time, they will generally start with the ε augment.
The ε Augment
In present indicative, the verb stem simply has a present indicative ending added. For example, λυ* is the stem and so λυ + ω = λύω, which is 1st person present indicative. But for past time, the stem not only has an ending, but there is usually an ε augment added to the front of the verb. So the aorist indicative for λύω is ἔλυσα. Not only does the stem have the ending -σα (more on that in the next section), but it also has the ε augment. Sometimes if the verb stem starts with a vowel, that vowel lengthens rather than adding an ε.
| stem | without augment | with augment |
|---|---|---|
| λυ* | λύω | ἔλυσα |
| ακου* | ἀκούω | ἤκουσα |
1st Aorist (sigmatic)
In English, the simple past tense is formed by adding -ed to the verb stem.
- I listen today. I listened yesterday.
- I open the book slowly. John already opened his book.
Similarly, Greek verbs mark past time through a special set of endings on the verb stem, often accompanied by the augment. One group of aorists is called 1st aorist.
The 1st aorist is identified by the presence of -σ- in its personal endings, hence the name “sigmatic aorist.” The following chart compares the present indicative and aorist indicative forms of the verb “to loose.”
| present indicative | personal endings | aorist indicative | personal endings | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| λύω | λύ-ω | -ω | ἔλυσα | ἔ-λυ-σα | -σα | |
| λύεις | λύ-εις | -εις | ἔλυσας | ἔ-λυ-σας | -σας | |
| λύει | λύ-ει | -ει | ἔλυσεν | ἔ-λυ-σεν | -σεν |
2nd Aorist (stem change)
Have you ever noticed that some of the most common words in a language tend to be irregular? Look at the following English examples. Instead of the normal -ed ending to mark for past tense, the stem itself changes.
- I go to the market daily. I went by myself last week.
- I do the work fast now. As a child I did work slowly.
- I think somewhat differently than I thought back then.
Likewise, in Greek some of the most common verbs mark the aorist not with the sigmatic endings, but with a different stem. The following chart compares the present indicative and aorist indicative forms of the verb “to run.”
| present indicative | personal endings | aorist indicative | personal endings | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| τρέχω | τρέχ-ω | -ω | ἔδραμον | ἔ-δραμ-ον | -ον | |
| τρέχεις | τρέχ-εις | -εις | ἔδραμες | ἔ-δραμ-ες | -ες | |
| τρέχει | τρέχ-ει | -ει | ἔδραμεν | ἔ-δραμ-εν | -εν |
-μι Verbs
What about -μι verbs? -μι verbs follow a more ancient morphological pattern. To start, take a look again at two common -μι verbs in the present indicative. Notice that the stem has a reduplication. You can see this in τίθημι, where the root θε- is reduplicated as τιθε-, and in δίδωμι, where the root δο- is reduplicated as διδο-.
| place | stem+ending | give | stem+ending | endings | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ἐγώ | τίθημι | τιθε-μι | δίδωμι | διδο-μι | -μι | |
| σύ | τίθης | τίθε-ς | δίδως | διδο-ς | -ς | |
| αὐτός | τίθησιν | τίθε-σιν | δίδωσιν | διδο-σιν | -σιν |
In the aorist form of these verbs, there is no reduplication. The ε augment is generally present, and the endings are similar to the sigmatic ending except instead of a -σ- there is a -κ-.
| present indicative | personal endings | aorist indicative | personal endings | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| δίδωμι | διδο-μι | -μι | ἔδωκα | ἔ-δο-κα | -κα | |
| δίδως | διδο-ς | -ς | ἔδραμες | ἔ-δο-κας | -κας | |
| δίδωσιν | διδο-σιν | -σιν | ἔδραμεν | ἔ-δο-κεν | -κεν |
Footnotes
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The word aorist means “indefinite” or “without boundary.” This will make more sense later when you learn what this means. For now, just know that the aorist indicative is the simple, default past tense verb form. ↩