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Quiz about Ancient Greek The Second Aorist
Quiz about Ancient Greek The Second Aorist

Ancient Greek-- The Second Aorist Quiz

Words that take second aorists can be unnecessarily confusing. I mean, where do I look up "ethEka" in a dictionary? Under "tithEmi." Obviously. So take this quiz. Win friends and influence people with your newfound grammatical muscle!

A multiple-choice quiz by pu2-ke-qi-ri. Estimated time: 6 mins.
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Author
pu2-ke-qi-ri
Time
6 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
214,599
Updated
Jul 23 22
# Qns
15
Difficulty
Tough
Avg Score
8 / 15
Plays
440
- -
Question 1 of 15
1. The good news is that the vast majority of verbs have a first aorist, and only a few have a second aorist. The bad news is that these few verbs are used very, very, very, very frequently!


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Question 2 of 15
2. Some verbs have both a first aorist and a second aorist. Lucky them!


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Question 3 of 15
3. What set of personal endings do second aorists take in the active? What other tense is it the same as? Hint


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Question 4 of 15
4. Say you have a verb with a prepositional prefix, say, "apopheugeis". (No, not YOU. It's not that bad, really.) So. Where would you add the augment? Hint


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Question 5 of 15
5. The way to tell strong aorists from imperfects is usually whether the word in question uses the aorist stem or the present stem, which is usually the aorist stem with a few consonants added or vowels changed. The only sure way to know is to memorize the principle parts of the verb, but they do fall into several broad categories. Hence, the next few questions. Which of the following words (given in the aorist) does NOT form its present tense stem by adding two nu's? Hint


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Question 6 of 15
6. How do "edOke", "hestEka", and "ethEka" form their present tense? Hint


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Question 7 of 15
7. The present tenses of "epese" and "egeneto" are "piptO" and "gignomai", respectively. They form their present tenses with reduplication in iota, but which of these do they also use? Hint


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Question 8 of 15
8. What happens to the "e" in "leipousi", "peithousi", and "pheugousi" in the second aorist stem? Hint


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Question 9 of 15
9. What is the second aorist of "hepeis"? Hint


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Question 10 of 15
10. What suffix do "egnOn", "healO", "hEuron", "ethane", and "epathe" add to form their present stems? Hint


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Question 11 of 15
11. What is the present stem of "eipe"? Hint


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Question 12 of 15
12. Which one of these does not mean the same thing as the others? Hint


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Question 13 of 15
13. What is the aorist of "hikneomai"? Hint


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Question 14 of 15
14. In Book 1 of the Iliad, when Agamemnon tells off the priest Chryses, Chryses "bE d' akeOn para thina poluphloisboio thallassEs." Several lines later, when Apollo hears Chryses' prayers, he "bE de kat' oulumpoio karEnOn khOomenos kEr." What is this word "bE"? This quiz is about second aorists, so you can bet that it is a second aorist; you can tell from context that it is third person singular; but what word does it come from? Hint


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Question 15 of 15
15. A couple of lines later, when Apollo reaches the Achaean camp, he fits an arrow to the string of his bow, and "ball'" Is this an aorist or an imperfect tense?

Answer: (Either "impefect" or "aorist.")

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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. The good news is that the vast majority of verbs have a first aorist, and only a few have a second aorist. The bad news is that these few verbs are used very, very, very, very frequently!

Answer: True

The usual approach is to memorization. Just learn the present and aorist stems of the most common words that have a second aorist. Learning all the verbs listed in this quiz would probably be quite sufficient. Wait-- memorization? Run away!
2. Some verbs have both a first aorist and a second aorist. Lucky them!

Answer: True

This can be confusing. The first and second aorists usually have different meanings. To examine "trepO", the verb with the singular distinction of having three first aorists and three second aorists:
"etrepsa"/"etrapon" (turned)
"etrepsamEn" (put to flight) / "etrapomEn" (turned myself, took to flight)
"etrephthEn" (was turned) / "etrapEn" (was turned and turned myself)
Translations are, of course, from our good buddy Smythe.
3. What set of personal endings do second aorists take in the active? What other tense is it the same as?

Answer: Imperfect (-on, -es, -e, -omen, -ete, -on)

 Given that the personal endings for the second aorist and the imperfect are indistinguishable, you must be on your guard to see whether the stem is the present stem or the aorist stem. How do you do that, you ask? Well, you have taken the rest of the quiz, haven't you? Read on...
4. Say you have a verb with a prepositional prefix, say, "apopheugeis". (No, not YOU. It's not that bad, really.) So. Where would you add the augment?

Answer: In front of the verb, after or replacing the last vowel in the preposition

 So it would be "apephuges," which I sincerely hope isn't true. I mean, I'm sure the grammar is true, but I just hope that you're not outta here...
5. The way to tell strong aorists from imperfects is usually whether the word in question uses the aorist stem or the present stem, which is usually the aorist stem with a few consonants added or vowels changed. The only sure way to know is to memorize the principle parts of the verb, but they do fall into several broad categories. Hence, the next few questions. Which of the following words (given in the aorist) does NOT form its present tense stem by adding two nu's?

Answer: ethEka

 An explanation of "ethEka" is given below. The present tense forms of the others are as follows: "lanthanO", "tugkhanO" (n before a palatal stop becomes something like an ng sound, which is written as a gamma), "lambanO" (n before a labial becomes an m). Other examples are "lanthanO", "lagkhanO", "manthanO", and "puthanO".
6. How do "edOke", "hestEka", and "ethEka" form their present tense?

Answer: Reduplication in i

 Take the first consonant in the stem, say, the d of "do-", add an i, and tack it on the front of the word. So, we get "didO-". Then add the usual personal endings. For "tithEmi", this should be "thithEmi". But, according to Grassmann's law, there cannot be aspirates in two successive syllables, so the first (or sometimes second) aspirate is dropped. So, "tithEmi". With "hestEka", there should be reduplication in s, so "sestEka". But, according to one sound rule, some initial s's turned into h's, so we get "hestEka".

A good number of the so-called athematic or "-mi" verbs form their present tenses this way.
7. The present tenses of "epese" and "egeneto" are "piptO" and "gignomai", respectively. They form their present tenses with reduplication in iota, but which of these do they also use?

Answer: Change of vowel grade

 Most Indo-European languages have (or had) some sort of vowel grade change. Old English probably had the best-developed system; think of "speak, spake, spoke," for instance. In Greek, there are three grades of vowel: e, o, and zero (where the vowel is not present at all. I represent the presence of its absence with a capital Z.) In "piptO", the present uses a zero grade, "pZt-", which becomes "pipZtO" with the present reduplication and personal ending.

The aorist uses an e-grade, "pet-", which becomes epese with the augment, personal ending, and sigma (but if it uses a sigma, why is it a strong aorist? Ask a grammarian.) "gignomai" does the same thing-- zero grade present but e-grade aorist.
8. What happens to the "e" in "leipousi", "peithousi", and "pheugousi" in the second aorist stem?

Answer: It disappears

 Another example of vowel grade change, this time from e-grade in the present to zero grade in the second aorist. The second aorists are "elipon", "epithon", and "ephugon".
9. What is the second aorist of "hepeis"?

Answer: hespes

 Yet another lovely example of vowel grade change. The stem is "sep-". The e-grade present stem is "hep-", since its initial s has turned into an h. The zero-grade aorist stem is "sp-". To this we add the augment and personal endings. The spiritus asper is probably on analogy with the present stem.
10. What suffix do "egnOn", "healO", "hEuron", "ethane", and "epathe" add to form their present stems?

Answer: -sk-

 The "-sk-" in the present stem is not to be confused with the use of "-sk-" in the imperfect or aorist to denote a "customary or repeated past action." The class of verbs which form their present stem with "-sk-" is known as the "inceptive" or "incohative" class because some of them have the meaning of beginning or becoming.

However, even our good friend Smythe admits, "But very few verbs have this meaning." The present tenses of the verbs listed above are "gignOskousi", "haliskei", "heuriskO", "thnEskei", and "paskhei".

The last takes some manipulation: path + sk, the th + s = s, but the k takes the aspiration of the th, giving kh.
11. What is the present stem of "eipe"?

Answer: It doesn't have one

 Trick question. "eipe" is part of a suppletive verb system, where the present stem is totally different from the aorist stem. The present-tense forms are all built off of "phEmi".
12. Which one of these does not mean the same thing as the others?

Answer: oida

 Another suppletive verb system, this time for the verb "see." "horaO" handles the forms that come from the present tense stem. "heoraka" (or "heOraka", both forms are seen) is the perfect of "horaO". "eidon" handles the aorist. "oida" is the perfect of "eidon", but means "I know." I suppose it comes from the idea that if you have seen something in the past, you've seen it and know it in the present.
13. What is the aorist of "hikneomai"?

Answer: hikomEn

 The aorist stem is "hik-". The present stem adds "-ne-", for "hikne-". There are a slew of similar-looking verbs. "hikO" is also a second aorist, "hixon". "hikanO" does not have an aorist, and all the aorist meanings are supplied by "hikneomai". "hiketeuO" is a first aorist, "hiketeusa".
14. In Book 1 of the Iliad, when Agamemnon tells off the priest Chryses, Chryses "bE d' akeOn para thina poluphloisboio thallassEs." Several lines later, when Apollo hears Chryses' prayers, he "bE de kat' oulumpoio karEnOn khOomenos kEr." What is this word "bE"? This quiz is about second aorists, so you can bet that it is a second aorist; you can tell from context that it is third person singular; but what word does it come from?

Answer: bainei

 The aorist stem is "ba-", so the" -e" of the third person singluar ending contracts to form "bE". The present stem adds a yod, which shows up as an "-i-", and a nu. To supply some unfamiliar vocabulary from those lines, akeOn = silently; thina = beach; poluphloiboio = loud-roaring, nicely onomotopoetic. KarEnOn = heights; "kEr" is accusative of respect. So, "He went silently along the shore of the loud-roaring sea," and "He went down from the heights of Olympus, angry at heart."
15. A couple of lines later, when Apollo reaches the Achaean camp, he fits an arrow to the string of his bow, and "ball'" Is this an aorist or an imperfect tense?

Answer: Imperfect

The aorist stem is bal-, one lambda. The present stem adds a yod, which manifests itself as a double lambda, ball-. So, we know that "ball'" uses the present stem. Why couldn't it be the present tense? The present personal ending "-ei" would not "elide", but the imperfect personal ending "-e" would.

The aorist wouldn't have an appropriate meaning here. It would be "he shot," instead of "he was shooting" or "he started shooting."
Source: Author pu2-ke-qi-ri

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor Leau before going online.
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