Modern Greek Grammar Lessons

Lesson 16 Verbs the imperfect Tense

The imperfect is another type of past tense. It works as follows:

δούλευα	δουλεύαμε
δούλευες	δουλεύατε
δούλευε	δούλευαν

‘δούλευα’ can be translated into English as follows:

δούλευα στο Λονδίνο	1 I used to work in London
δούλευα στο Λονδίνο	2 I was working in London
δούλευα στο Λονδίνο για έξι χρόνια	3 I worked in London for six years

This tense is applied to actions which have happened in the past over a continuous period of time.

You may have spotted that the first part of the verb (the stem) is the same as the Present tense and that the ending and the position of the accent is the same as the Simple Past tense.

With verbs such as γράφω, an additional ‘έ’ is placed at the beginning of the verb to form a third syllable.

έγραφα	γράφαμε
έγραφες	γράφατε
έγραφε	έγραφαν

Μost verbs ending in –άω and -ώ have different patterns.

μιλούσα	μιλούσαμε
μιλούσες	μιλούσατε
μιλούσε	μιλούσαν

Note that the accent mark is always over the ούσ.

A third pattern is exemplified by τρώω and similar verbs

present	imperfect
τρώω	έτρωγα
κλαίω	έκλαιγα
ακούω	άκουγα
λέω	έλεγα

The imperfect of πάω is πήγαινα.

The imperfects of είμαι and έχω are as follows:

ήμουνα	I was, used to be	ήμαστε	we were
ήσουνα	you were	ήσαστε	you were
ήταν	he, she it was	ήταν	they were

είχα	I had, used to have	είχαμε	we had
είχες	you had	είχατε	you had
είχε	he, she it had	είχαν	they had

Now Try Crosswords 35 & 36