Asigmatic Aorist Indicative Active

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Introduction

Many common verbs mark aorist aspect by adding nothing to the base. This means that, with a few exceptions, the base is by default aorist. Because these verbs do not add /σ/ to mark aorist aspect, they are called asigmatic. (For a very brief introduction to the aorist, see here.)

The aorist indicative is a past time tense, so a verb will use a past time marker (ἐ/ or L/). In almost every instance, the asigmatic aorist indicative active uses thematic personal endings:

ἐ/ or L/

BASE

/ον          /ομεν /ες          /ετε /ε            /ον

For example:

     ἐ/παθ/ε > ἔπαθε “he persuaded”
     L/ἐλθ/ομεν > ἤλθομεν “we went”

When the verb is prefixed, the past time marker is added to the beginning of the base:

     ἀπο/ε/θαν/ον > ἀπέθανον “they died”

Here is a list of common asigmatic aorist bases.

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Intermediate

insert discussion of specifics: ἀγ, ϝεπ, ἑλ, ταμ and τεμ, εὑρ

including that ϝεπ/ can use alpha.

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Vocabulary for this lesson (see here for the full lexicon)