Imperatives: Aorist stem, -mi verbs

Greek Learning Greek
1

I have two questions about Greek Imperatives, either in general or as they concern New Testament Greek in particular.

  1. Are all imperatives built off the aorist stem thereby considered aorist in tense? Or, can you build, for example, a present tense imperative off an aorist stem?

  2. What are the rules for forming the different imperatives of -mi verbs? I can’t seem to figure out any consistent rules. Is it best to just memorize several examples?

Thanks,

Andy

2

Hello, Andy !

  1. In the present imperative and in the aorist imperative, it is not the tenses that matter, for, in both cases, the order applies to the future. So it is the aspect that matters.

In the present imperative, the aspect is imperfective, like in ἀληθῆ λέγε “tell the truth”, i.e. now, tomorrow, on every occasion… it applies in many cases.

In the aorist imperative, the aspect is perfective, like in εἰπέ μοι “tell me” (right now, the determined thing I want to know), it applies in a single determined case.

  1. Yes, just memorize it.
3

If you go to the Tutorials section we have a two-part tutorial about aspect, which touches on some of these questions.