The Aorist Tense

28.1 So far, we have learned verbs in PRIMARY TENSES, meaning that the tenses refer to action in the present or future. We have also learned one of the SECONDARY TENSES (tenses that refer to past): the IMPERFECT tense. This unit introduces us to the most common secondary tense: the AORIST. Both the imperfect and aorist tenses describe actions of the PAST TENSE. They differ in what is called ASPECT. Before discussing how to form the aorist tense, it is important to understand what we mean by the grammatical term, aspect.

28.2 Aspect

TENSE locates the action of a verb in time, relative to the time of the speaker. The basic tenses are:

• Past
• Present
• Future 

ASPECT is a grammatical term that expresses the relationship between the ACTION of a verb and the PASSAGE OF TIME. Aspect describes whether the action, regardless of its tense, is:

• Ongoing. This is an ongoing, or habitual action.
• Simple. This is a simple action, or an action not marked as to whether the results of the action are continuing.
• Completed. This is a past action that has permanent or lasting results. We discuss this aspect in a later lesson.

Greek verbs and infinitives can express all three aspects, but the most common are:

• Ongoing
• Simple

While both the IMPERFECT and AORIST tenses refer to past actions, and so are past tenses, they differ in ASPECT. The AORIST tense always conveys a single, discreet action (i.e. simple aspect). This is the most common tense for referring to action in the past. The IMPERFECT tense always conveys past activity that was more than a single action in some way (i.e. ongoing aspect).

• Aorist: I walked
  • snapshot of a past action (simple aspect)
• Imperfect: I was walking/ used to walk
  • video of past action (ongoing aspect)

28.3 Verb vs. Tense Stems:

The AORIST and IMPERFECT are secondary tenses, so an AUGMENT precedes the stem in the indicative mood. They both also use SECONDARY ENDINGS. The two tenses differ, however, in the STEM they use. Therefore, it is essential to identify the stem correctly in order to tell if a particular verb form is imperfect or aorist.

Remember: there are two kinds of stems in Greek:

• The TENSE STEM, to which primary or secondary endings are added:
  • δεικνυ (present tense stem)
  • λυ (present tense stem)
  • λαμβαν (present tense stem)
• The VERB STEM, from which all tense stems are derived. Verb stems are sometimes identical to a tense stem:
  • δεικ
  • λυ (same as present tense stem)
  • λαβ

The IMPERFECT tense almost always uses the PRESENT TENSE STEM for any given verb. The AORIST almost always uses the VERB STEM.

28.4 First and Second Aorist

Some verbs add a MARKER to the verb stem when forming the AORIST, others do not.

• If the verb adds the aorist marker –σα– to the verb stem, it is called the FIRST AORIST.
• If the verb uses the verb stem without the marker, it is called the SECOND AORIST.