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Class Notes

Imperfect Indicative Active

Imperfect Indicative Active

The Imperfect Indicative Active Endings:

Singular

1st person: – ν

2nd person: – ς

3rd person: –

Plural

1st person: – μεν

2nd person: – τε

3rd person: – ν or σαν

The imperfect is a past tense that denotes continuous or repeated action in the past. Unlike the aorist when expressing past tense, which describes a simple, completed action, the imperfect emphasizes the ongoing, habitual, or iterative nature of the action. This tense is used to describe actions that were in progress or repeated over a period of time in the past, up to the point of writing, often without a clear indication of when they were completed.

Form and Structure:

• The imperfect is constructed by taking the verb stem (λου) and adding an augment (usually ἐ-) to the beginning of the verb to indicate past time, followed by specific tense endings. ἐ – λού – ον (“I was washing”)
• Syllabic augment (ἐ-): used with verbs beginning with consonants.
• Temporal augment (lengthening of the initial vowel): used with verbs that start with vowels.

Endings in the Imperfect Tense:

1st person singular: -ον (ἐ- + stem + ο + ν → “I was doing”)

2nd person singular: -ες (ἐ- + stem + ε + ς → “You were doing”)

3rd person singular: -ε(ν) (ἐ- + stem + ε + – → “He/She/It was doing”)

1st person plural: -ομεν (ἐ- + stem + ο + μεν → “We were doing”)

2nd person plural: -ετε (ἐ- + stem + ε + τε → “You (plural) were doing”)

3rd person plural: -ον (ἐ- + stem + ο + ν or σαν → “They were doing”)

Usage of the Imperfect Tense:

• Narrative: Often used in narrative passages to set the scene or […]
  

Declensions

Class Notes Download Second Declension

In linguistic terms, declension refers to the way nouns, pronouns, and adjectives in languages, particularly inflected ones like Greek, Latin, or Hebrew, change their form to express different grammatical categories such as case (nominative, genitive, etc.), number (singular, plural), and gender (masculine, feminine, neuter). In Greek and Hebrew, declensions are crucial because they help to indicate the function of a word in a sentence, such as whether it is the subject, object, or shows possession, among other roles.

First Declension: The first declension is characterized by long vowel endings like -η and -α in the nominative singular. Typically includes nouns that are mostly feminine but also some masculine nouns.

Second Declension: The second declension is categorized by o class vowels. Masculine nouns generally have endings in -ος (e.g., λόγος) in the nominative singular, while neuter nouns end in -ον.

Third Declension: This declension is more irregular and diverse, containing nouns of all three genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter). The nouns in the third declension can have various stem endings and exhibit more complex case endings, such as -ς (e.g., βασιλεύς).

Gender refers to a system of noun classification that affects how nouns and related words (such as adjectives, pronouns, and verbs) are inflected in a language. In languages with grammatical gender, nouns are categorized into specific gender classes, which often determine the form of associated words (e.g., adjectives and pronouns) and can sometimes affect the verb conjugation.

In Koine Greek, there are three grammatical genders:

1. Masculine: This gender is often used for nouns referring to males but also includes many inanimate objects and abstract concepts. For example, ἀδελφός (adelphos) means “brother” and is […]