The aorist (αόριστος) is Greek's perfective past — the tense for a single completed event: I wrote, I ran, I opened. This page builds it for Class Α verbs, the first conjugation: the ones stressed on the stem, like γράφω (write), παίζω (play), τρέχω (run) and ανοίγω (open). (The stressed Class Β verbs in -άω/-ώ — αγαπώ → αγάπησα, μιλώ → μίλησα — build their aorist on the -ησα pattern and have their own page.) The recipe has three ingredients — an augment, the perfective stem, and a set of past endings — but here is the good news up front: two of those three you already know cold, and the whole tense turns on one change.
The paradigm: γράφω → έγραψα
Take γράφω ("I write"). Its perfective stem is γραψ- (φ + σ merge into ψ), and onto that we hang the past endings:
| Person | Aorist | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| εγώ | έγραψα | I wrote |
| εσύ | έγραψες | you wrote |
| αυτός/-ή/-ό | έγραψε | he/she/it wrote |
| εμείς | γράψαμε | we wrote |
| εσείς | γράψατε | you (pl.) wrote |
| αυτοί/-ές/-ά | έγραψαν | they wrote |
Χθες έγραψα δύο σελίδες για την εργασία μου.
chthes éghrapsa dhío selídhes ya tin erghasía mu
Yesterday I wrote two pages for my assignment.
Μου έγραψε ένα μήνυμα ότι θα αργήσει.
mu éghrapse éna mínima óti tha aryísi
She texted me that she'll be late.
Οι φοιτητές έγραψαν τις εξετάσεις τους την Παρασκευή.
i fitités éghrapsan tis eksetásis tus tin Paraskeví
The students sat their exams on Friday.
The endings themselves are -α, -ες, -ε, -αμε, -ατε, -αν. (Colloquially you'll also hear a longer 3rd-plural in -ανε — έγραψανε / γράψανε (informal) — but the standard written form is -αν.)
The one thing that changes: the stem
Here is the insight that makes the aorist easy. Those endings — -α, -ες, -ε, -αμε, -ατε, -αν — and the augment behaviour are exactly the imperfect's. Put the two pasts of γράφω side by side:
| Person | Imperfect (γράφ-) | Aorist (γράψ-) |
|---|---|---|
| εγώ | έγραφα | έγραψα |
| εσύ | έγραφες | έγραψες |
| αυτός | έγραφε | έγραψε |
| εμείς | γράφαμε | γράψαμε |
| εσείς | γράφατε | γράψατε |
| αυτοί | έγραφαν | έγραψαν |
The two columns differ in one letter: the imperfect keeps the imperfective stem γράφ-, the aorist swaps in the perfective stem γράψ-. Same augment, same endings, same stress. This is why the aorist is far less work than it looks: you are not learning a new tense machine, you are feeding a new stem into the machine you already own. Everything hard about the aorist is really about building that stem — and that is a job you do once, in the Aspect section. What the swap means — was writing vs. wrote — is the whole subject of aspect in the past.
The perfective stem in action
For Class Α, the perfective stem is the present stem + -σ-. When the stem ends in a consonant, that -σ- fuses with it, which is where the aorist gets its variety:
| Present | Merge | Aorist (1sg) | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| γράφω | φ + σ → ψ | έγραψα | write |
| παίζω | ζ + σ → ξ | έπαιξα | play |
| τρέχω | χ + σ → ξ | έτρεξα | run |
| ανοίγω | γ + σ → ξ | άνοιξα | open |
| κλείνω | ν drops → σ | έκλεισα | close |
| δουλεύω | -εύω → -εψ- | δούλεψα | work |
Έπαιξα ποδόσφαιρο με τα ξαδέρφια μου το Σαββατοκύριακο.
épeksa podhósfero me ta ksadhérfia mu to savatokíriako
I played football with my cousins over the weekend.
Έτρεξα όσο πιο γρήγορα μπορούσα, αλλά ήταν ήδη αργά.
étreksa óso pio ghríghora borúsa, alá ítan ídhi arghá
I ran as fast as I could, but it was already too late.
Άνοιξα το παράθυρο γιατί έκανε πολλή ζέστη μέσα.
ániksa to paráthiro yatí ékane polí zésti mésa
I opened the window because it was really hot inside.
Δούλεψα ένα καλοκαίρι σε ξενοδοχείο στην Κρήτη.
dhúlepsa éna kalokéri se ksenodhochío stin Kríti
I worked one summer at a hotel in Crete.
Notice παίζω → έπαιξα: a -ζω verb going to -ξα, not the -σα you might expect from the letter ζ. That split is one of the trickier corners of the system, and it — along with every other consonant merge — gets its own drilling on the aorist consonant merges page. Verbs whose stem ends in a vowel (λύνω → έλυσα, ακούω → άκουσα) join the -σ- cleanly and are collected on the vowel-stem aorists page.
The augment: why έγραψα but γράψαμε
Look back at the paradigm and you'll see a little ε- appear and disappear: έγραψα, έγραψες, έγραψε, but plain γράψαμε, γράψατε — then έγραψαν again. That ε- is the augment, and it is not decoration: Greek past-tense stress wants to sit on the third syllable from the end, and short forms don't have three syllables to offer. Γραψα would be only two syllables, with nowhere for the accent to land — so the augment steps in to provide the missing syllable: έ-γρα-ψα. In γρά-ψα-με the ending already supplies a third syllable, so the stress falls naturally on γρά- and the augment is not needed.
Γράψαμε μαζί το γράμμα και το ταχυδρομήσαμε.
ghrápsame mazí to ghráma ke to tachidhromísame
We wrote the letter together and posted it.
Το βιβλίο το διαβάσαμε όλοι στο σχολείο.
to vivlío to dhiavásame óli sto scholío
We all read that book at school.
The augment carries the stress in the singular and the 3rd plural (έγραψα, έγραψες, έγραψε, έγραψαν) and vanishes in the 1st and 2nd plural (γράψαμε, γράψατε). This is identical to the imperfect. The full story of when the augment appears, drops, and even hides inside compound verbs is on the augment page; the pure accent rule lives on accent in the aorist.
What the aorist says
The aorist reports an event as a single, completed whole — it happened, and it is over. English usually renders it with the plain simple past:
Πέρυσι ταξίδεψα μόνη μου στην Ιταλία για πρώτη φορά.
périsi taksídhepsa móni mu stin Italía ya próti forá
Last year I travelled to Italy on my own for the first time.
Χθες είδα μια πολύ καλή ταινία στον κινηματογράφο.
chthes ídha mia polí kalí tenía ston kinimatoghráfo
Yesterday I saw a really good film at the cinema.
Set that against the imperfect έγραφα ("I was writing / I used to write"), which keeps the event open and unbounded. Choosing between the two is the central skill of Greek past narration; it has its own home on using the aorist and the imperfect-vs-aorist comparison. (You'll have spotted είδα above: a handful of everyday verbs — βλέπω → είδα, λέω → είπα, τρώω → έφαγα, παίρνω → πήρα — build their aorist from a completely different root. These suppletive aorists are collected on irregular and suppletive aorists.)
Common Mistakes
1. Writing the stem consonant + σ without merging them. φ + σ is spelled ψ; there is no form ×έγραφσα.
❌ Χθες έγραφσα ένα γράμμα στη γιαγιά μου.
Incorrect — φ + σ merges to ψ: έγραψα.
✅ Χθες έγραψα ένα γράμμα στη γιαγιά μου.
chthes éghrapsa éna ghráma sti yayá mu
Yesterday I wrote a letter to my grandma.
2. Merging a velar stem to σ instead of ξ. τρέχω is a throat-sound (velar) stem, so it gives ξ, never ×τρέσα.
❌ Έτρεσα να προλάβω το τρένο.
Incorrect — χ + σ merges to ξ: έτρεξα.
✅ Έτρεξα να προλάβω το τρένο.
étreksa na prolávo to tréno
I ran to catch the train.
3. Keeping the augment (and its stress) in the plural. The 1st and 2nd plural have no augment, and stressing the aorist four syllables back is impossible in Greek — ×έπαιξαμε is not a word.
❌ Χθες έπαιξαμε μπάσκετ στο πάρκο.
Incorrect — the 1pl drops the augment: παίξαμε.
✅ Χθες παίξαμε μπάσκετ στο πάρκο.
chthes péksame básket sto párko
Yesterday we played basketball in the park.
4. Using the imperfective stem for a single finished event. English's -ing tempts you into the imperfect έπαιζα ("was playing"), but one completed game is a bounded whole — perfective stem, έπαιξα.
❌ Χθες το βράδυ έπαιζα μια παρτίδα σκάκι και κέρδισα.
Incorrect for a single finished game — the perfective aorist is needed: έπαιξα.
✅ Χθες το βράδυ έπαιξα μια παρτίδα σκάκι και κέρδισα.
chthes to vrádhi épeksa mia partídha skáki ke kérdhisa
Last night I played a game of chess and won.
Key Takeaways
- The Class Α aorist = augment + perfective stem + past endings (-α, -ες, -ε, -αμε, -ατε, -αν).
- Those endings and the augment are identical to the imperfect's — the only difference between έγραφα and έγραψα is the stem (imperfective γράφ- vs. perfective γράψ-).
- The perfective stem is present + -σ-, with the -σ- merging into a consonant: γράφω → έγραψα, τρέχω → έτρεξα, ανοίγω → άνοιξα. The merges are drilled on the consonant-merges page.
- The augment ε- appears only where the form needs a third syllable for the stress: έγραψα, έγραψαν — but γράψαμε, γράψατε.
- The aorist frames an event as a single completed whole (Χθες έγραψα ένα γράμμα); the imperfect keeps it open. That choice is covered in using the aorist.
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Start learning Greek →Related Topics
- Using the AoristA2 — The aorist is Greek's default past tense: single finished actions (πήγα, είδα), events chained in a narrative (μπήκε, κάθισε, παρήγγειλε), actions with a result (έμαθα ελληνικά), and time-bounded stretches (έμεινα δύο χρόνια) — the tense that most often lines up with the English simple past, and how it splits work with the imperfect.
- Aorist Consonant Merges (-ψα, -ξα, -σα)B1 — The reading skill that unlocks the aorist: every aorist hides the same perfective -σα, and the ending you see (-ψα, -ξα or -σα) tells you what consonant it landed on. Read the merge backwards — -ψα points to a labial verb, -ξα to a velar, -σα to a dental or -νω verb — and you can recover the present of an aorist you've never met. Includes the honest -ζω split (παίζω → έπαιξα but νομίζω → νόμισα).
- Aspect in the Past: Imperfect vs AoristA2 — The past is where aspect bites first and hardest. Greek has two past tenses for the same verb: the imperfect (έγραφα — was writing, used to write, the background) and the aorist (έγραψα — wrote, a single completed event). The signature pattern is a long imperfect frame cut across by a sudden aorist — Διάβαζα όταν χτύπησε το τηλέφωνο — and it lines up almost exactly with the Spanish imperfect/preterite split.