Language/Modern-greek-1453/Grammar/Past-Tense

In Greek, there are three past tenses. We use each tense for a different reason.

Παρατατικός (paratatikos)

We use this tense to talk about something that happened in the past for a long time of more than once. Unlike English, we use the continuous tense to talk about past habits.

It is a continuous tense and is translated into the Past Continuous tense in English.

To form this tense, you add the letter 'ε' in front of the verb (this comes from the ancient Greek language) and the proper ending.

Note: In modern Greek, the 'ε' in the beginning is eliminated for 1st and 2nd plural and when the verb starts with a vowel you can't add 'ε'.

Also, the intonation is placed above the vowel of the third syllable counting from the end.

Examples

εγώ	έ-παιζ-α ( épeza )	I was playing
εσύ	έ-παιζ-ες (épezes )	You were playing
αυτός, - η , -ό	έ-παι-ζε ( épeze	He/She/It was playing
εμείς	παί-ζα-με ( pézame	We were playing / Notice that there is no 'ε' in the beginning of the word.
εσείς	παί-ζα-τε (pézate )	You were playing / Notice that there is no 'ε' in the beginning of the word.
αυτοί,-ές, -ά	έ-παιζ-αν ( épezan	hey were playing Note: For a few verbs you have to place 'η' instead of 'ε', like the verb ξέρω (ksEro=know) that becomes ήξερα (Iksera=I knew).

Αόριστος (Aôristos )

We use this tense to talk about something that happened in the past for a short time or just once. It is a non-continuous tense. To form this tense, you add the letter 'ε' in front of the verb (this comes from the ancient Greek language), the proper ending and change the last letter (if the last letter is a consonant, there will be a table of the letter changes, but it's not always accurate, you will mostly learn that from experience) or add the letter 'σ' (if the last letter is a vowel, most times though, native Greek speakers have a different way of doing this, which you will be taught from experience). Note: In modern Greek, the 'ε' in the beginning is eliminated for 1st and 2nd plural and when the verb starts with a vowel you can't add 'ε'. Also, the intonation is placed above the vowel of the third syllable counting from the end.

Examples

εγώ	έ-παι-ξα ( épexa )	I played
εσύ	έ-παι-ξες ( épexes )	You played
αυτός ,-ή ,-ό	έ-παι-ξε ( épexe )	He/She/It played
εμείς	παί-ξα-με ( péxame )	We played Notice = that there is no 'ε' in the beginning of the word.
εσείς	παί-ξα-τε (péxate )	You played Notice= that there is no 'ε' in the beginning of the word.
αυτοί ,-ές ,-ά	έ-παι-ξαν (épexan )	They played Note: For a few verbs you have to place 'η' instead of 'ε', like the verb ξέρω (ksEro=know) that becomes ήξερα (Iksera=I knew).

Υπερσυντέλικος (Hypersyntélikos)

We use this tense to talk about something that was completed in the past, or that something was completed before something else happened in the past. To for this tense, you use the past form of the verb έχω (Eho=have) and the infinitive form of the verb.

Examples

εγώ	είχα παίξει ( îcha péxi )	I had played
εσύ	είχες παίξει (îches péxi )	You had played
αυτός ,-ή ,ό	είχε παίξει ( îche péxi )	He/She/It had played
εμείς	είχαμε παίξει ( îchame péxi )	We had played
εσείς	είχατε παίξει îchate péxi )	You had played
αυτοί ,-έ ,-ά	είχαν / είχανε παίξει	They had played

Starting Letter	Changes into
κ, γ, χ, ττ, ζ	ξ
π, β, φ, πτ	ψ
τ, δ, θ	υσ