Past, ongoing, in motion. Greek's first past tense, with three new ideas at once: the augment (a prefix marking past), secondary endings, and durative aspect — "I was loosing," "I used to loose," "I kept on loosing."
Lessons 10-13 worked through the present-tense system. The imperfect adds three things to your toolkit:
Most of what you know transfers. The verb stem is the same. Personal endings are similar — just modified.
Self-check: an augment is a prefix — usually ε- for consonant-initial verbs, vowel-lengthening for vowel-initial — that signals past time. The imperfect, aorist, and pluperfect carry it; future, present, and perfect do not.
The imperfect's aspect is durative — ongoing or repeated past action. Simple past ("I loosed") is the aorist's job (Lesson 15).
Always render the imperfect with English progressive (-ing) or habitual ("used to") forms when the context allows.
English usually marks tense (past/present/future) and lets aspect drift. Greek puts aspect first.
Simple test: could you replace the verb in your translation with "was [verb]ing" or "kept on [verb]ing"? If yes, imperfect aspect fits.
| Verb starts with | What happens | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Consonant | Add ε- | λυω → ελυον |
| Vowel | Lengthen the vowel | ακουω → ηκουον |
| Compound (prep + verb) | Augment goes between | αποθνησκω → απεθνησκον |
Three patterns, predictable. The augment is your first visible sign that a past tense is in play.
| Initial vowel | Becomes | Example |
|---|---|---|
| α- | η- | ακουω → ηκουον |
| ε- | η- | εγειρω → ηγειρον |
| ο- | ω- | οφειλω → ωφειλον |
| αι- | ηι- | αιτεω → ητουν |
| οι- | ωι- | οικοδομεω → ωκοδομουν |
The diphthongs αι- and οι- lengthen with iota subscript appearing on the long vowel.
In compound verbs (preposition + verb), the augment is placed between the prefix and the stem — not at the front.
Failing to recognize augmented compound verbs is one of the most common parsing errors at this stage.
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | ελυον — I was loosing | ελυομεν — we were loosing |
| 2nd | ελυες — you were loosing | ελυετε — you were loosing |
| 3rd | ελυε(ν) — he/she/it was loosing | ελυον — they were loosing |
Secondary endings to memorize: -ον, -ες, -ε(ν); -ομεν, -ετε, -ον.
Compare to primary (present): -ω, -εις, -ει; -ομεν, -ετε, -ουσι(ν). Notice 1pl and 2pl are identical to the present.
The 1st singular and 3rd plural of the imperfect active are identical.
Context decides — usually the subject pronoun, a plural noun nearby, or the surrounding narrative. Same trick as Lesson 10's 1sg/3pl ambiguity carried into past tense.
The same applies to ελεγον ("I was saying" / "they were saying"), ηκουον, and any other imperfect active.
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | ελυομην | ελυομεθα |
| 2nd | ελυου | ελυεσθε |
| 3rd | ελυετο | ελυοντο |
Just like the present, middle and passive look identical — same four-step diagnostic from Lesson 12 applies.
Deponents stay deponent: ηρχετο ("he was coming") — middle form, active sense.
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | ημην — I was | ημεν / ημεθα — we were |
| 2nd | ης / ησθα — you were | ητε — you were |
| 3rd | ην — he/she/it was | ησαν — they were |
Tip: ην alone appears over 300 times in the NT. Its plural ησαν is the second-most-common imperfect. Recognize them on sight.
If you see ην or ησαν followed by a participle, consider whether it's a periphrastic imperfect (Lesson 23).
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
John uses imperfect ην three times: was, was, was. Establishing eternal pre-existence.
The imperfect carries durative force; the aorist would have collapsed eternity into a snapshot. The Word didn't become God; he eternally was God.
The durative aspect can serve several specific functions:
When in doubt, "was [verb]ing" almost always works. Refine to "used to" / "kept on" / "began to" only when context calls for it.
"They were trying to seize him, but they were not able." (John 7:30.)
The imperfect aspect itself signals the attempt-without-completion meaning.
"He was in the world, and the world came into being through him."
The aspect-distinction is central to Greek narrative: imperfect describes background; aorists describe events.
"Daily he was teaching in the temple." (Luke 19:47.)
The phrase καθ ημεραν ("daily") + the imperfect εδιδασκεν makes the iterative force explicit.
English equivalents: "used to teach," "would teach," "kept teaching." Not a one-time event — a regular practice.
The imperfect of διδασκω regularly opens extended teaching scenes in Mark and Luke. The imperfect captures the ongoing nature of the teaching — not a single pronouncement.
English speakers learn Greek tenses by reaching for English equivalents — past, present, future. But Greek's deeper organizing principle isn't time. It's aspect.
The Greek-speaking mind asks not "when did this happen?" but "how did this happen?" — as a continuous process, as a snapshot, as a completed result. Time is overlaid on top of aspect.
This becomes especially clear in non-indicative moods (subjunctive, imperative, infinitive, participle) where Greek uses the same tense forms but they no longer carry time. A present subjunctive isn't "now"; it's "ongoing." An aorist subjunctive isn't "past"; it's "snapshot."
Train yourself to ask both questions: When? (Time.) How? (Aspect.) Together they give you the verb's full force. NT writers chose tense forms with care.
Where the imperfect runs a movie, the aorist takes a snapshot. Together these two tenses cover most past-time narrative in the NT.
John 1:9-11 already showed you both at work: imperfect ην for the abiding light, aorist εγενετο and ηλθεν for the events.
The augment in three flavors, secondary endings (active and mid/pass), the imperfect of ειμι, the five aspect-uses, and the imperfect-vs-aorist contrast that drives Greek narrative.
Tense isn't just when. It's how.