Imperfect Tense

Imperfect Tense is used in Greek to describe a continuous or repeated action performed in the past. Hence, it can usually be translated using the English Past Continuous (I was opening the door). Sometimes Imperfect tense can refer to a customary action in the past, in this case, one could use "use to" to translate it (i.e. I used to open the door). There are also times when Imperfect is used as Incentive Imperfect; this means that it describes the action that began in a certain moment in the past and continued for some time. In this case, one might us "began to" to translate it (i.e. I began to open the door).

The stem used for the Imperfect forms is the stem of the First Principal Part, with an added ε-augment. This means that an additional epsilon is added in front of the root. For example, the 1st person Singular Imperfect Indicative Active form of λύω is ἔλυον. I.e. the Imperfect stem of λύω is ἔλυ-. There can be the following complications when adding the augment:

• If the root begins with a vowel, this vowel might contract together with the added ε, to form another vowel. For example, the Imperfect stem of ἀκούω is ἤκου- .

• If there is a prefix, when the epsilon augment will usually be inserted between the root and the prefix. For example, the Imperfect stem of καταβαίνω, which is composed of the prefix κατα and the verb βαίνω, is κατεβαίν-.

The Imperfect Tense uses a differet set of endings as compared with Present, and Future. The forms of the Imperfect Active Indicative are given below:

Reminder: The ν in brackets is a movable ν. It often appears before words starting with vowels or at the end of a sentence or a clause. But it can be omitted as well.

The forms of the Imperfect Indicative Middle\Passive are given below: