Elementary New Testament Greek, 2014a

Exercises
I. Short Answer
1) What time (past, present or future) does the Greek Imperfect Tense
signify?
2) What aspect (internal/continuous, external/undened, or perfect) does the
Greek Imperfect Tense signify?
3) How would you express (in English) these notions of time and aspect (of
the Imperfect Tense) with the verb “run” in the rst person singular, active
voice?
4) From which Principal Part is the Greek Imperfect Tense built?
5) With what set of personal endings is the Greek Imperfect Tense built?
6) What two kinds of augment appear with Greek verbs in past-time tenses?
7) How many different Principal Parts would a “regular” Greek verb have?
8) From what basic element are all Principal Parts formed?
9) Even though we may nd the word μ in a Greek Lexicon, why
is it that the other Principal Parts (and therefore many other forms of this
word) will not be formed from this Entry form?
Solutions to Exercise I
1) past
2) internal/continuous
3) I was running (notice: past time; internal/continuous aspect)
4) the First Principal Part
5) secondary personal endings
6) syllabic [prexed as an epsilon to a verb beginning with a consonant]; temporal [lengthening initial
vowel of a verb so beginning]
7) six [We have only encountered the First Principal Part to this point.]
8) the Verb Root
9) Because the Entry Form is not the Root; it is only the First Principal Part. Tradition has dictated that
we identify verbs by their First Principal Parts, not by their Roots. Perhaps in some ideal world we
might all use dictionaries organized by Roots!
II. Drills with Present and Imperfect Verb Tenses
Increase your skill in recognizing, parsing and translating the Imperfect Tense with
the following drills. Notice that the left-hand column contains Present Tense verbs,
and that we move into the new territory of the Imperfect as we shift to the right-hand
column. Go over this exercise repeatedly until it begins to “ow” easily.
It should also be helpful to forge a clear link between the “information” that the
parsing gives us (e.g. Present Active Indicative, 2nd person Plural) and the English
translation we supply (e.g. ya’ll are sending…). Work through this drill repeatedly,
until you understand exactly how the parsing information results in an accurate
English translation.
1) Working with the verb:
a) .
b) .
c) μ .
d) μ .
2) Working with the verb:
a) .
b) .
c) .
d) .
3) Working with the verb:
a) .
b) .
c) .
d) .
10: Imperfect Tense
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