C.W. ShelmerdineIntroduction to Greek 2nd edition(Newburyport, MA: Focus, 2008)

The Perfect System(from Chapters 31-33)

Shelmerdine Chapter 31The perfect system The perfect and pluperfect active indicative of regular verbs (4th principal part) The perfect and pluperfect middle/passive indicative of regular verbs (5th principal part) The dative of personal agent The perfect infinitive (4th and 5th principal parts) Result (consecutive) clauses

Shelmerdine Chapter 31 parse/parsing1st, 2nd or 3RD PERSONSINGULAR or PLURALPRESENT, IMPERFECT, FUTURE, AORIST, PERFECT or PLUPERFECTINDICATIVE, INFINITIVE, IMPERATIVE, SUBJUNCTIVE, OPTATIVE, PARTICIPLE ACTIVE, MIDDLE, PASSIVE

Shelmerdine Chapter 311. The perfect system The perfect tense refers to a completed action which results in the current situation.Recall that the aorist tense refers to a single past action. Recall that the imperfect tense refers to ongoing or repeated past action.

Shelmerdine Chapter 311. The perfect system Imperfect (incomplete past)I was climbing the tree.Aorist (single action)I climbed the tree.Perfect (completed action)I have climbed the tree.

Shelmerdine Chapter 311. The perfect system The present, imperfect, and aorist tenses together make up about 90% of the verb forms in most ancient Greek texts.The present, future, imperfect, aorist and perfect tenses together make up over 99% of the verb forms in most ancient Greek texts.

Shelmerdine Chapter 31The perfect system The perfect and pluperfect active indicative of regular verbs (4th principal part) The perfect and pluperfect middle/passive indicative of regular verbs (5th principal part) The dative of personal agent The perfect infinitive (4th and 5th principal parts) Result (consecutive) clauses

Shelmerdine Chapter 312. The perfect and pluperfect active indicative of regular verbs (4th principal part) The perfect adds a reduplication to the beginning of the stem.For a stem beginning with a consonant, this reduplication means the consonant doubles, separated by an -- - -- -

Shelmerdine Chapter 312. The perfect and pluperfect active indicative of regular verbs (4th principal part) The perfect adds a reduplication to the beginning of the stem.Most verbs also add the tense marker -- to the end of the stem.- -

Shelmerdine Chapter 31singular- (I)- (you)-() (s/he, it)plural- (we)- (you, yall)-() (they)the endings for the perfect(like the weak [1st] aorist endings,except in the 3rd plural)

Shelmerdine Chapter 31singularpluralperfect tense stem = Note the addition of both the reduplication and the to the stem.

Shelmerdine Chapter 312. The perfect and pluperfect active indicative of regular verbs (4th principal part) The perfect tense refers to a completed action which results in the current situation.The pluperfect tense refers to a completed action which resulted in a specific situation in the past.

Shelmerdine Chapter 312. The perfect and pluperfect active indicative of regular verbs (4th principal part) Imperfect (incomplete past)I was climbing the tree.Aorist (single action)I climbed the tree.Perfect (completed action)I have climbed the tree.Pluperfect (completed action in the past)I had climbed the tree.

Shelmerdine Chapter 312. The perfect and pluperfect active indicative of regular verbs (4th principal part) The pluperfect is the secondary version of the perfect indicative, so it adds an augment (like the imperfect and aorist).Like the perfect tense, it adds both a reduplication to the beginning of the stem and the tense marker -- to the end of the stem.- -

Shelmerdine Chapter 31singular()pluralpluperfect tense stem = Note the addition of the augment, reduplication and to the stem.

Shelmerdine Chapter 312. The perfect and pluperfect active indicative of regular verbs (4th principal part) Watch out for the pluperfect in the readings, but it is a very rare tense and you are not responsible for it in this class.

Shelmerdine Chapter 31Looking up a Greek verb The 1st sg present indicative active is the first principal part of a verb, , , lead, bring, , , write, , , pursue, , , loose, set free, , , persuade, , , send

Shelmerdine Chapter 31Looking up a Greek verb The 1st sg future indicative active is the second principal part of a verb, , , lead, bring, , , write, , , pursue, , , loose, set free, , , persuade, , , send

Shelmerdine Chapter 31Looking up a Greek verb The 1st sg aorist indicative active is the third principal part of a verb, , , lead, bring, , , write, , , pursue, , , loose, set free, , , persuade, , , send

Shelmerdine Chapter 31Looking up a Greek verb The 1st sg perfect indicative active is the fourth principal part of a verb, , , lead, bring, , , write, , , pursue, , , loose, set free, , , persuade, , , send

Shelmerdine Chapter 31The perfect system The perfect and pluperfect active indicative of regular verbs (4th principal part) The perfect and pluperfect middle/passive indicative of regular verbs (5th principal part) The dative of personal agent The perfect infinitive (4th and 5th principal parts) Result (consecutive) clauses

Shelmerdine Chapter 313. The perfect and pluperfect middle/passive indicative of regular verbs (5th principal part) The perfect and pluperfect middle/passive use the same stem as the active, except without the -- marker.For reference, this stem is shown in the 5th principal part.

Shelmerdine Chapter 313. The perfect and pluperfect middle/passive indicative of regular verbs (5th principal part) The perfect and pluperfect middle/passive indicative use the standard endings: primary endings - - - - - - for the present, future, and perfect tenses. secondary endings - - - - - - for the imperfect, aorist, and pluperfect tenses.

Shelmerdine Chapter 31ACTIVEsingular plural MIDDLE/PASSIVE singular plural perfect tense stem = (+ in active)

Shelmerdine Chapter 31ACTIVEsingular plural MIDDLE/PASSIVE singular plural pluperfect tense stem = (+ in active)

Shelmerdine Chapter 31The perfect system The perfect and pluperfect active indicative of regular verbs (4th principal part) The perfect and pluperfect middle/passive indicative of regular verbs (5th principal part) The dative of personal agent The perfect infinitive (4th and 5th principal parts) Result (consecutive) clauses

Shelmerdine Chapter 31Genitive of agent When a sentence is passive, the agent of the action normally goes in the genitive following : . Pericles pursues the Persians. (active) .The Persians are pursued by Pericles. (passive)

Shelmerdine Chapter 31Genitive of agent An instrument is expressed by the dative, whether the verb is active or passive: . Pericles pursues the Persians in a chariot. .The Persians are pursued by Pericles in a chariot. .The Persians are pursued by chariots.

Shelmerdine Chapter 314. The dative of personal agent When the verb is perfect and passive, however, the personal agent is usually in the dative: . Pericles has set the horses free. .The horses have been set free by Pericles.

Shelmerdine Chapter 31The perfect system The perfect and pluperfect active indicative of regular verbs (4th principal part) The perfect and pluperfect middle/passive indicative of regular verbs (5th principal part) The dative of personal agent The perfect infinitive (4th and 5th principal parts) Result (consecutive) clauses

Shelmerdine Chapter 315. The perfect infinitive (4th and 5th principal parts) perfect infinitivesendings: (active) (middle) (active) (middle) The accent for these infinitives is fixed on the penult.

Shelmerdine Chapter 315. The perfect infinitive (4th and 5th principal parts) The perfect infinitive is used only to emphasize the completeness of some action: . I dont want to set the city free: I want it completely destroyed!

Shelmerdine Chapter 32The 2nd (strong) perfect active Reduplication The perfect middle/passive of consonant stem verbs The perfect active participle The perfect middle/passive participle Supplementary participles not in indirect statement

Shelmerdine Chapter 321. The 2nd (strong) perfect active The term 2nd (strong) perfect refers to verb which does not add the tense marker -- to form its perfect stem.This happens almost always because adding - to the verb stem would make it difficult or unpleasant to pronounce.

Shelmerdine Chapter 32Looking up a Greek verb The 1st sg perfect indicative active is the fourth principal part of a verb, , , lead, bring, , , write, , , pursue, , , loose, set free, , , persuade, , , send

Shelmerdine Chapter 32The 2nd (strong) perfect active Reduplication The perfect middle/passive of consonant stem verbs The perfect active participle The perfect middle/passive participle Supplementary participles not in indirect statement

Shelmerdine Chapter 312. Reduplication The reduplication necessary to form the perfect stem might also be modified for pronunciation purposes.For a stem beginning with an aspirated consonant, reduplication means only the stop consonant doubles, not the aspiration:- -

Shelmerdine Chapter 312. Reduplication The reduplication necessary to form the perfect stem might also be modified for pronunciation purposes.For a stem beginning with a sigma, reduplication usually means adding the -- but not doubling the :- - - (-) -

Shelmerdine Chapter 312. Reduplication The reduplication necessary to form the perfect stem might also be modified for pronunciation purposes.For a stem beginning with a vowel, reduplication means effectively lengthening the vowel:-, - -- -- -- -

Shelmerdine Chapter 32The 2nd (strong) perfect active Reduplication The perfect middle/passive of consonant stem verbs The perfect active participle The perfect middle/passive participle Supplementary participles not in indirect statement

Shelmerdine Chapter 323. The perfect middle/passive of consonant stem verbs Also for purposes of pronunciation, if the stem of the verb ends in a consonant, some assimilation takes place with the consonant of the ending.Recall the basic relationship of the consonants (Shelmerdine page 2).

Shelmerdine Chapter 32

LabialDentalPalatalunvoiced stopvoicedaspirated+ nasal , , ,

Shelmerdine Chapter 323. The perfect middle/passive of consonant stem verbs Middle verb endings start with one of five consonant sounds: (, , , ) (, ) (, ) (, ) (, )

Shelmerdine Chapter 323. The perfect middle/passive of consonant stem verbs Labials and palatals assimilate to the voice and aspiration of the adjacent consonant. Dentals become throughout.

Shelmerdine Chapter 32

Labial(, , )Dental(, , )Palatal(, , )+ + + + + ---

Shelmerdine Chapter 323. The perfect middle/passive of consonant stem verbs The third person plural endings (, ) yield clusters too complicated to be pronounced smoothly (e.g., , , ), especially for a construction used only rarely.

Shelmerdine Chapter 323. The perfect middle/passive of consonant stem verbs Consequently, Greek substitutes a periphrastic (using multiple words to substitute for a single one) construction: the perfect passive participle + 3rd person plural form of .For , for example, instead of *, we find , literally having been written, they are they have been written.

Shelmerdine Chapter 32The 2nd (strong) perfect active Reduplication The perfect middle/passive of consonant stem verbs The perfect active participle The perfect middle/passive participle Supplementary participles not in indirect statement

Shelmerdine Chapter 324. The perfect active participle

To form the perfect active participle, to the perfect active stem, add - (nominative singular endings) -- disappears in the masculine/neuter, -- replaces -- in the feminine,but otherwise identical to the present active. . (p. 244)

Shelmerdine Chapter 32The 2nd (strong) perfect active Reduplication The perfect middle/passive of consonant stem verbs The perfect active participle The perfect middle/passive participle Supplementary participles not in indirect statement

Shelmerdine Chapter 205. The perfect middle/passive participle

All participles in the middle voice have the marker --. All participles in the middle voice use endings. Thus to form the perfect middle participle, to the perfect middle stem,add

Shelmerdine Chapter 33The perfect subjunctive and optative Numbers Declension of numbers The negative pronouns/adjectives and Clauses of fearing Indirect questions

Shelmerdine Chapter 331. The perfect subjunctive and optative The subjunctive exists in only two tenses, the present and aorist. Shelmerdine shows forms for the perfect subjunctive, but these are rare and of restricted use, so you may safely ignore them.

Shelmerdine Chapter 331. The perfect subjunctive and optative Greek uses a periphrastic (using multiple words to substitute for a single one) construction: the perfect participle + the present subjunctive of . , literally having written, they are they have been written. , literally having been written, they are they have been written.

Shelmerdine Chapter 331. The perfect subjunctive and optative The optative exists in only two tenses, the present and aorist. Shelmerdine shows forms for the perfect optative, but these are rare and of restricted use, so you may safely ignore them.

Shelmerdine Chapter 331. The perfect subjunctive and optative Greek uses a periphrastic (using multiple words to substitute for a single one) construction: the perfect participle + the present optative of . , literally having written, they are they have been written. , literally having been written, they are they have been written.

The Perfect System(Chapters 31-33)for next class (Thursday, April 14, 2011):Quiz: Endings of the perfect active indicative + infinitive Verb overview and review

Quiz 38singular- (I)- (you)-() (s/he, it)plural- (we)- (you, yall)-() (they)the endings for the perfectinfinitive

Shelmerdine Chapter 31for next class (Monday, April 25, 2011):Quiz: Vocabulary Chapter 31 omit: Remainder of Chapters 31-33