Αόριστος/Aorist/Simple Past tense in Greek

Αόριστος/Aorist/Simple Past tense in Greek

Lesson 42

            Αόριστος, the Greek Simple Past tense is used to describe an action took

            place  εχθές/χθες/χτες (yesterday), προχθές (the day before yesterday),

            τον προηγούμενο μήνα/τον περασμένο μήνα (last month), πριν από

            έναν μήνα (one month ago), πριν από τρεις εβδομάδες (3 weeks ago),

            την προηγούμενη εβδομάδα/την περασμένη εβδομάδα (last week),

            πέρσι/πέρυσι (last year) or generally to describe an action took place

            before the moment of speaking. It is used to describe an action took

            place in past for a short while, or for a long while when we want to

            describe an entire action as a single event. We use Αόριστος when we

            talk about something started and finished in past.

            The first thing you should know about Αόριστος is that almost all the

            active verbs in Simple Past are stressed in the third from the end

            syllable. Even the two syllable (in Present tense) verbs. We will learn

            these verbs in one of the next lessons.

            The second thing you should know is that all the active verbs have in

            Simple Past the same personal endings.

-α

-ες

-ε

-αμε

-ατε

-αν/-ανε

            Νοw we will learn  how to form from Ενεστώτας (the Greek Present

            tense) Αόριστος. We will divide the active verbs in small groups to learn

            Aόριστος easily. First we will learn the verbs ending in Present tense in

            -ώνω. For example, ακυρώνω (I cancel).

 Let’s see step by step how to make its Simple Past form.

1.      We remove the Present tense’s ending, so the last  syllable, the syllable

-νω. ακυρώ-νω.

2.      We add to the stable part of the verb (ακυρώ-) the consonant σ (sigma),

ακυρω – σ –

3.      We add the Simple past tense’s personal endings.

ακυρω-σ-α.

4.      We put the accent mark on the third from the end syllable.

α-κύ-ρω-σα.

We follow the same steps for all the active verbs ending in Present

tense in –ώνω.

Οne more example:

ανακοινώνω (I announce).

1.      We remove the last syllable (-νω).

ανακοινώ-

2.      We add to the stable part of the verb (ανακοινώ-) the consonant σ (sigma).

ανακοινω – σ –

3.      We add the Simple Past tense’s endings.

ανακοινω – σ – α

4.      We put the accent mark in the third from the end syllable.

ανακοίνωσα

           

Aόριστος
εγώ ακύρωσα	εγώ ανακοίνωσα
εσύ ακύρωσες	εσύ ανακοίνωσες
αυτός/ αυτή/ αυτό ακύρωσε	αυτός/αυτή/ αυτό ανακοίνωσε
εμείς ακυρώσαμε	εμείς ανακοινώσαμε
εσείς ακυρώσατε	εσείς ανακοινώσατε
αυτοί/ αυτές/ αυτά ακύρωσαν/ αυτοί / αυτές/ αυτά ακυρώσανε	αυτοί/αυτές/αυτά ανακοίνωσαν/ αυτοί/αυτές/αυτά ανακοινώσανε