1st Aorist: Indicative
What happened? (story-telling, actions, specific/precise/one-off facts. |
ἐ | past tense marker |
χώρησ | aorist stem |
ε(ν) | past tense ending, 3rd person singular |
And, as happens in the future, for contract verbsFirst Aorist Active Endings:
stem ending α, ε lengthen to η and
stem ending ο lengthens to ω.
Who? | approached | |
---|---|---|
I you he/she/it we you they |
προσ-εχώρησ προσ-εχώρησ προσ-εχώρησ προσ-εχωρήσ προσ-εχωρήσ προσ-εχώρησ |
α ας ε(ν) αμεν ατε αν |
The 1st aorist (like the 2nd aorist and the imperfect) has secondary endings but with an α instead of ο/ε (except for the he, she, it form)
Note
As προσχωρέω "I approach" is a compound verb I inserted a hyphen to show that the past tense marker is put in front of the base verb, NOT before the compound prefix.
What happened next? Dikaiopolis knocked on the door.
So how would you ask who knocked?
How would you say that you personally knocked?
that the guards knocked?
Why ψ instead of ἔκοπτσα? Because in ancient Greek τ is always dropped before sigma. There is NO τσ combination, nor δσ, θσ. τ, δ and θ are always dropped when supposed to be followed by a sigma, in the future as well as in the 1st aorist.
Which leaves a ps sound that must be written ψ because there is no such thing as a πσ combination. Just as there is no κσ, γσ or χσ, all pronounced ks and spelt ξ.
Note The only time you see a κσ instead of ξ is in compound words like ἐκ-σώζω for instance, where the word beginning with a sigma is preceded by the preposition/prefix ἐκ.
Examples
Who? | Present Indicative does it |
Future Indicative will do it |
Aorist Indicative did it |
I you (sg) he,she,it we you (pl) they |
σκάπτω πέμπεις γράφει διώκομεν παίζετε πείθουσιν |
σκάψω πέμψεις γράψει διώξομεν παίσετε πείσουσιν |
ἔσκαψα ἔπεμψες ἔγραψε ἐδιώξαμεν ἐπαίσατε ἔπεισαν |