Verb Tenses Flashcards
Present Tense
- durative aspect is connoted all modes – a focus on the actual proces of a continuous, ongoing or repeated action.
- “undefined” (weak) aspect at times, an aspect not truly known or clear.
Imperfect Tense
durative aspect, but in the past.
Future Tense
future time, but actually does not have an aspect other than that.
Aorist Tense
indicates past time in the indicative mode, but has a punctiliar aspect in all modes.
-aspect of the aorist is a simple view of the whole of the action, in its totality. Still, in the indicative mode, the aorist does tend to imply a brief action which occurred at one point of time in the past. This is because a durative past action can be expressed by the imperfect tense in the indicative mode. Thus, the aorist indicative fills in the gap, and can be used to express a past-time, short-term, one-time action.
Perfect Tense
perfective in aspect. That is, it refers to an already completed or accomplished action, usually in the past, just like an aorist. However, the perfect tense also indicates that this completed event results in “a current state of existence,” or in some kind of effects which are still felt and ongoing at the present time. If a resultant effect or state of existence is not active and felt in the present time (that is, at the time when the verb was actually spoken or written, of course), then either the aorist or the pluperfect would be used to describe the completed action.
Pluperfect Tense
the whole of the “perfective” aspect was felt in the past. It is not like the perfect tense, where the effects of the past action are still being felt.
Future Perfect Tense
perfective in aspect, it seems to refer to an already completed action in the present, but may refer to an action which may have only begun, or even will begin in the future. Yet, once the action is completed, all its ongoing (durative) effects will be entirely realized only in the future.
Aspect: Punctiliar: (aorist tense)
The whole of the verb’s action is viewed in its entirety, from beginning to end. It is a complete picture of all the action of the verb, as an event. When it is past time (such as in the indicative mode), it refers to a completed action. The term “punctiliar” means a “point in time.” But this confuses some, since they think of a brief moment, a few seconds to a few hours. But a “point in time” is not necessarily a small point or a short time. It can be anything from a fraction of a second, to hundreds of years. So some prefer to call this aspect a “summary” of the verb’s action or occurrence – a portrait of the entire event described by the verb. For instance, if we said “he ran” (with a punctiliar aspect), we might picture someone standing somewhere and panting, having completed the run. The verb would make us think back over the entire event of his having run, from the starting point to the end of the run.
Aspect: Durative: (present and imperfect tenses)
The action or occurrence is seen as “in progress,” progressive, continuous, ongoing, repeated or incomplete. This aspect is mostly about the actual process or activity of the action. So its focus is on the duration, repetition or continuation of the action. It draws a mental picture of the action taking place. When we say, “he is running,” we imagine someone performing the actual process of running – with the legs and body actually moving – and picture an ongoing, continuous or repeated action in progress.
Aspect: Perfective: (perfect, pluperfect, and future perfect tenses)
The Greek perfective aspect is not exactly like the perfective (completed action) aspect of an English perfect tense. It is true that a Greek perfective aspect also views the action as a completed event, usually in the past. And, in this sense, it is similar to the English perfect tense, and also just like the Greek aorist tense. However, the main focus of the Greek perfect tense falls upon the resulting effects of the completed action. Its focus on the effects is really the only thing that makes it different from the aorist tense. So we must not forget to translate something about the effects, if we can. After all, if an author chose to use a perfect tense, instead of an aorist tense, the reason was because he wanted to convey something about the resultant effects of the action described by the verb.
Aspect: Future: (future tense)
The future is sometimes considered a fourth aspect, one indicating that an action will occur in the future. It is often like our English future tense. It indicates time only, and does not really specify anything about aspect.
