Imperfect Tense 6

Imperfect Six

3 prose examples

Plato Phaedo 58a καὶ ἐθαυμάζομεν γε

Thucydides uses Imperfect where others might use Aorist

οἱ Κερκυραῖοι ἔπεμπον τὴν ὠφελίαν ἄσμενοι

 The Corcyreans sent the assistance gladly.

Xenophon Anabasis 1.3.2.

καὶ πρῶτον μὲν ἐδάκρυε πολὺν χρόνον ἑστώς.

 Οἱ δὲ ὁρῶντες ἐθάυμαζον καὶ ἐσιώπων.

And at first he wept for a long time while standing and the others watching were amazed and silent.

Imperfect tense 3

Imperfect Tense Three

Classical Greek has 4 PRIMARY Tenses:

Present Future Perfect Future Perfect

There are also 3 SECONDARY Tenses for PAST ACTIONS

IMPERFECT AORIST PLUPERFECT

The Imperfect is used to describe continuous habitual repeated past actions.

All of these secondary tenses have an initial ε added called the augment.

Some are irregular and have irregular Imperfect forms with a pluperfect meaning.

Like Attic ἔοικε

However the laws of contraction apply to augment e

see the next post.