6.2a, p 1 6.2a: A past tense: Imperfect. 1) The concept of aspect 2) Conjugation of the Imperfect To understand the two past tenses of the Indicative that we will study next it is best to begin with an example in English. When I say something like ʺWhen you called me, I was cookingʺ I refer to my action of cooking as developing in time, as an action in progress that was interrupted at some point by the call. Any action, of course, has duration, no matter how minimal. Your call did not really happen at a point in time, but I do not want to represent its duration. This contrast in the way that language represents actions or events is not a contrast in tense (both tenses are past) but in what grammarians call aspect. ʺI was cookingʺ is the English progressive past; ʺyou calledʺ is the simple past. The corresponding Greek progressive past is called Imperfect. It exists only in the Indicative, thus the title above is not ʺImperfect Indicative.ʺ No other mood has an Imperfect. The Greek tense that is equivalent to the English simple past is called Aorist. Its aspect is defined as punctual or punctiliar. So far the two languages are similar. In one important respect, however, they differ. In English we can turn any tense into its corresponding progressive counterpart, e.g. instead of ʺhe may have written that letterʺ we say, with a different intention, ʺhe may have been writing that letter all night.ʺ To effect this transformation in English we put the verb to be in the tense we are working on, no matter which one, and add the present participle (the ‐ing form of the verb). It would be possible to replicate the complete conjugation of an English verb in the progressive aspect, although some meanings obviously preclude that point of view (ʺthey were plungingʺ and the like makes no sense). Greek does not offer such an option. There is only one Present Indicative: we can translate φεύγει as ʺhe fleesʺ or ʺhe is fleeingʺ on the basis of the context. There is no special progressive form for the Future Indicative either: γράψεις = ʺyou will drawʺ or ʺyou will be drawing.ʺ These are the tenses we have considered so far: 6.2a, p 2 Speakerʹs time Tense Punctual aspect Progressive aspect present time Present πέμπω = I send (same) = I am sending future time Future πέμψω = I will send (same) = I will be sending (past time) (two tenses) Aorist (will be studied later) ἔπεμψα = I sent Imperfect ἔπεμπον = I was sending In addition to representing a progressive action in the past, the Greek imperfect may denote a customary action in the past. Depending on the context, we may therefore translate ἔπεμπον = “I used to send” or “I kept sending.” How to conjugate the Imperfect, you ask? Here is the recipe. Take the present stem of any verb you have learned so far, e.g. μανθαν‐ ( μανθάνω = to learn) Set in front of it a mark of past tenses known as augment. If the verbal stem begins with a consonant, augment consists in the vowel ἐ. (In 6.2b you will learn how to apply augment to verbs beginning with a vowel, and where to apply augment to a compound verb.) Apply a new set of endings, known as ʺhistoricalʺ or ʺsecondaryʺ because they serve as markers of past tenses. (Again I am using the term ʺendingʺ inaccurately, because it includes the linking or thematic vowel.) Notice that these vowels are the same as those in the Present: ο, ε, ε, ο, ε, ο. The endings are: ‐ον, ‐ες, ‐ε, ‐ομεν, ‐ετε, ον. (The context will indicate to us wether ‐ον has the first person sg or the third pl as the subject.) 6.2a, p 3 EXAMPLE Imperfect of μανθάνω. Since the verb begins with a consonant, the augment should be ἐ. ἐμάνθανον = I was learning or used to learn ἐμάνθανες = you (sg) were learning or used to learn ἐμάνθανε = he, she, it was learning or used to learn ἐμανθάνομεν = we were learning or used to learn ἐμανθάνετε = you (pl) were learning or used to learn ἐμάνθανον = they were learning or used to learn