Unit 27 Uses of the Participle Part I

Greek Learning Greek
1

Χαίρετε!

I just finished my first reading of Dr. Mastronarde’s Unit 27. The second paragraph states:

The present participle conveys the aspect of the present stem: that is, continuous or
repeated action. In practice, it most often refers to an action contemporaneous with
the action of the main verb of the sentence and is usually translated in English by a
present participle (X’ing, being X’ed). But in the proper context, the present participle
may refer to an action antecedent or subsequent to that of the main verb; for example,
a Greek present participle may be translated into English as an imperfect:

τοὺς τότε παρόντας οὐ παραδώσει.
He will not surrender those who were present at that time.

Besides context determining aspect and tense, I take it that one can use a finite verb in one tense and a participle in a different tense in the same phrase? Such as aorist verb and present participle or present verb and aorist participle or future verb and present participle?

2

Yes the tense of a participle is independent of the tense of the main verb (and vice versa). You could have τοὺς τότε παρόντας as the object of παραδίδωμι in the present, or future, or imperfect, or aorist, or whatever. They all mean different things, and you should be able to work out what.