The second aorist

A small group of verbs use a different set of endings to form the active and middle voices of the aorist indicative. You will be happy to learn that these second aorist endings are actually identical to the endings you have already learned for the imperfect active and middle of -ω verbs. We recognize that a verb has a “second aorist” set of endings for the aorist active and middle when the third principal part ends in -ον or -όμην.

Examples: ἦλθον (from ἔρχομαι), εἶπον (from λέγω), ἐγενόμην (from γίγνομαι), εἶδον (from ὁράω).

Active and middle of second aorist -ω verbs

Formation of the second aorist follows the same process as first aorist active and middle forms.

(1) principal parts give an example form in the first singular indicative active of a representative tense: start by dropping the first singular ending -ον or -όμην and remove the accent from the third principal part:

ἦλθον -> ἠλθ-

εἶπον -> εἰπ-

ἐγενόμην -> ἐγεν-

εἶδον -> εἰδ-

(2) Add the appropriate ending.

Person and Number	Active ending	Middle ending
third singular	-ε	-ετο
third plural	-ον	-οντο

Notice that these endings are identical to the endings of the imperfect indicative. You will distinguish the imperfect from the aorist for these verbs by noticing which verb stem (which principal part) the ending is applied to. In the imperfect the ending is applied to the first principal part stem, and in the aorist the ending is applied to the third stem. Examples: ἤρχετο (imperfect) “She was going” vs. ἦλθε (aorist) “She went”; ἔλεγε “She was saying” vs. εἶπε “She said”; εἶδον “They saw” vs. ὥρων “They were seeing.”

Note that the first person singular active ending in the second aorist -ον is the same as that of the third personal plural active.

(3) Apply recessive accent.

Examples

	Active	Middle	Passive
third singular	ἦλθε	ἤλθετο	no 6th principal part
third plural	ἦλθον	ἤλθοντο	no 6th principal part

The first principal part ἔρχομαι shows us that there is no active voice for the forms made from that principal part (“present system”), while ἦλθον shows us that the aorist indicative appears in the active voice using second aorist endings.

	Active	Middle	Passive
third singular	εἶπε	εἴπετο	ἐλέχθη
third plural	εἶπον	εἴποντο	ἐλέχθησαν

Since the aorist passive is formed from the sixth principal part, those forms follow the same formation regardless of whether the third principal part is a first aorist or second aorist.