The past: imperfect and aorist παρατατικὸς καὶ ἀόριστος

Greek has two common past tenses. The imperfect shows an action going on, or repeated, in the past: "I was loosening", "I used to loosen". The aorist tells the action simply as an event: "I loosened". Stories are told in the aorist; scenes and circumstances in the imperfect.

Both mark past time the same way: with the augment, an addition at the front of the verb. Look at the imperfect and aorist columns.

Two kinds of augment. A verb that begins with a consonant adds ἐ-: λύω, ἔλυον; γράφω "write", ἔγραψα. A verb that begins with a vowel lengthens it instead: α and ε become η, ο becomes ω. So ἄγω "lead" has the imperfect ἦγον, and ὀνομάζω "name" has ὠνόμαζον.

The aorist. Most verbs form it with σ and the endings -σα, -σας, -σε(ν), -σαμεν, -σατε, -σαν; the σ combines with a consonant before it, as φ + σ makes ψ in ἔγραψα. Many common verbs have a different stem in the aorist instead, which has to be learned with the verb: λέγω "say", aorist εἶπον; ἔρχομαι "come, go", aorist ἦλθον.