Paratatikos

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Paratatikos ( Greek  παρατατικός , stretching, expanding, unfinished ', παρατατικὸς χρόνος, tempus imperfectum' or 'imperfect'; Greek παρατατικός , 'imperfect') is the designation for a form of the grammatical past tense (also see past verb forms). The terms past tense and paratatikos are not congruent, however, since a verbal aspect is simultaneously expressed in the paratatikos : that of the repeated, ordinary or continuous action ( imperfective aspect ). The meaning of the paratatikos can therefore only be understood in conjunction with the second means of expressing past actions, the aorist . Both forms characterize past actions and events, but express a different attitude towards the course of the described action over time. Since the aorist describes one-off, completed actions or the selective beginning or end of events and these naturally occur more frequently in everyday life, it is the past tense used more often in spoken language. However, there is a group of verbs whose semantics exclude an aoristic meaning and which are therefore always set in the past using paratatikos, including a. also the verbs “have” (έχω), “to be” (είμαι) and “know, know” (ξέρω). There are also verbs that only form the aorist in modern Greek, but not the paratatikos, such as B. εκρήγνυμαι ( break out, explode ) or απατώμαι ( make a mistake ).

Education in Modern Greek

Almost every verb in Modern Greek has four stems, including the so-called present stem in addition to the two active and passive aorist stems as well as the participle-passive stem (The term 'present stem' can be misleading, as it is not only to be understood temporally but also as an aspect is - the present is by definition not closed. In Hans Ruge's "Modern Greek Grammar", the so-called present stem is therefore alternatively referred to as the paratatic stem ).

The Paratatikos of modern Greek verbs in active is regularly formed by adding the conjugation endings of the past to the unabbreviated present stem of the verb .

  • In verbs with non-final accented conjugation, the word accent is also shifted to the third from last syllable, with two-syllable verbs being preceded by an accented “ε” (less often “η”) as an augment .
  • In the case of end- stressed verbs, the stressed syllable "us" (ούσ) is inserted between the stem and the past ending.

In the case of compound verbs, an inner augment can be formed.

Examples
  • πληρ ώ ν | ω → πλ ή ρων | α (plir o n | o → pl i ron | a, I pay / paid)
  • βλ έ π | ω → έ | βλεπ | α (vl e p | o → e | vlep | a, I see / saw)

In both cases the translation has to take into account the meaning of the examples like "I usually paid" and "I saw every day".

Further examples of the formation of the paratatikos:

active

  • ρέω> έρεα ( flow )
  • λέω> έλεγα ( say )
  • μεταφράζω> μετάφραζα or μετ έ φραζα ( translate , inner augment optional)
  • περιθάλπω> περι έ θαλπα ( maintain - inner augment mandatory)
  • εγκρίνω> εν έ κρινα ( approve - inner augment mandatory)
  • αγαπώ> αγαπούσα ( love )
  • προχωράω> προχωρούσα, also: προχώραγα (to progress )

passive

  • αγαπιέμαι> αγαπιόμουν (to be loved )
  • αισθάνομαι> αισθανόμουν ( feel )
  • θεωρείται> θεωρούνταν or εθεωρείτο ( consider as )
  • πρόκειται> επρόκειτο ( are about )

The last two forms are remains of the Katharevousa .