Thematic Past Progressive Indicative Active

---

Introduction

As a reminder, this is how the thematic present progressive indicative active is formed:

PRESENT PROGRESSIVE ACTIVE

BASE

progressive aspect marker

/ω             /ομεν /εις          /ετε /ει            /ουσι

To form the past progressive, simply add a past time marker and use thematic personal endings:

PAST PROGRESSIVE ACTIVE

ἐ/ or L/

BASE

progressive aspect marker

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

* The third person plural /ον comes from an original /οντ, but τ dropped because it cannot end a Greek word.

The past progressive is called the imperfect.

---

Intermediate

To mark past time, Greek uses a past time prefix and thematic past time personal markers.

The past time prefix depends on whether the base begins with a consonant or a vowel. If it begins with a consonant, the past time prefix is ἐ/. If it begins with a vowel, the past time prefix is a lengthening (L/) of that vowel. For instance:

ἐ/λεγ/ομεν > ἐλέγομεν	we were saying
L/ἀκου/ετε > ἠκούετε	you were listening

Thematic past time personal markers, included in the conjugation of βα/, are these:

	singular	plural
1st person	ἐ/βα/ν/J/ον > ἔβαινον I was walking	ἐ/βα/ν/J/ομεν > ἐβαίνομεν we were walking
2nd person	ἐ/βα/ν/J/ες > ἔβαινες you were walking	ἐ/βα/ν/J/ετε > ἐβαίνετε you were walking
3rd person	ἐ/βα/ν/J/ε > ἔβαινε she/he/it was walking	ἐ/βα/ν/J/ον > ἔβαινον they were walking

The 1st person plural /ομεν and the 2nd person plural /ετε are indistinct from their not-past time counterparts. Otherwise the personal marker also marks past time.

For the details of personal markers, see here.

The past time prefix isn’t always used in Homeric Greek. When it’s not, the personal marker (except /ομεν and /ετε) should make it clear what time the verb is. For instance, because of /ουσι the verb βαίνουσι is present progressive, and because of /ον βαῖνον is past progressive.