In short

The aorist (ο αόριστος) is the everyday past tense for a finished, whole event: I wrote, I went, I ate. You build it from the perfective stem you met in lesson 23 plus one fixed set of past endings: -α, -ες, -ε, -αμε, -ατε, -αν(ε). Nothing else changes.

The one thing that surprises learners is the little έ- in front: έγραψα, but γράψαμε. That prefix is the augment (η αύξηση), and it is not a tense marker you attach at will. It is a stress prop. Greek stress can never sit further back than the third syllable from the end, and the aorist wants the stress exactly there. Γράψ- + -α gives only two syllables, so Greek adds a syllable to stand on: έγραψα. Γράψ- + -αμε already gives three, so the prop is unnecessary and disappears: γρά-ψα-με. Learn the tense as stem + endings, and let the augment come and go on its own.

The rule

1. Take the perfective stem. From lesson 23: γράφω → γράψ-, στέλνω → στείλ-, μιλάω → μιλήσ-, ρωτάω → ρωτήσ-, μπορώ → μπορέσ-. This stem is what makes the tense perfective; the endings only mark person and past.

2. Add the past endings. They are the same for both conjugations and for every verb in the active voice, regular or not:

3. Put the stress on the third syllable from the end. Every aorist built on a regular perfective stem is stressed there. Count the syllables of stem + ending:

• If the word already has three or more syllables, the stress simply falls back onto the stem, and that is all: μι-λή-σα-με, ρω-τή-σα-τε, μπο-ρέ-σα-με.
• If the word has only two, there is no third syllable to stress. Greek supplies one by prefixing the syllabic augment ε-, which then takes the accent: έ-γρα-ψα, έ-στει-λα, έ-κα-να.

So the augment is present exactly where the word would otherwise be too short, and absent everywhere else. Because the endings -αμε and -ατε add a syllable of their own, the 1st and 2nd person plural never take it: γράψαμε, γράψατε. The 3rd person plural depends on which ending you choose: έγραψαν (short -αν, still two stem-syllables) but γράψανε (long -ανε, three syllables, no prop needed).

4. A few verbs use ή- instead of ε-. The temporal augment ή- (η χρονική αύξηση) behaves identically — it appears only when the form is short — but it is written with η: ήθελα / θέλαμε, ήξερα / ξέραμε. Treat it as a lexical quirk of those verbs. Do not confuse it with the fixed η- of ήρθα, ήπια, ήμουν: there the η belongs to the stem and never drops, so the plural keeps it — ήρθαμε, ήπιαμε, ήμασταν.

5. Second-conjugation verbs practically never need the augment. Μιλήσ-, ρωτήσ-, μπορέσ- are already two syllables, so stem + ending is always at least three and the stress just retracts inside the word: μίλησα, μιλήσαμε. There is no έ- to add and no έ- to drop. The rare exception is a second-conjugation verb with a one-syllable perfective stem: ζω → ζήσ- behaves exactly like γράφω — έζησα, έζησες, έζησε, but ζήσαμε, ζήσατε.

Negation is regular and does not touch the augment: δεν έγραψα, δεν γράψαμε.

Forms & patterns

First conjugation — γράφω (perfective stem γράψ-), the model for the whole tense:

Second conjugation — μιλάω (μιλώ), ρωτάω (ρωτώ), μπορώ. Note that no cell has an augment; only the accent moves:

The augment, counted out. The same four forms, with the syllables marked:

The temporal augment ή-. Ξέρω has no aorist at all — it exists only in the present stem — while θέλω has a perfectly ordinary one (θέλησα, θελήσαμε). The forms below are the everyday past of both (formally the imperfect, lesson 33), but they show the augment rule perfectly:

Suppletive aorists. These very common verbs build the past from a different root. The endings are the ordinary ones, and the augment rule still applies — watch έφαγα → φάγαμε:

In πήγα, πήρα, βρήκα, μπήκα, βγήκα — and likewise είδα, είπα, ήρθα, ήπια — the accented syllable belongs to the stem itself. These forms stay two syllables in the singular, take no augment at all, and nothing is ever dropped in the plural.

Είμαι and έχω have a single past tense each — no aspect choice, and you need them from day one:

Examples

Common mistakes

• εγράψαμε -> γράψαμε — the augment exists only to carry the stress; in the 1st and 2nd person plural the stress already has a stem syllable to sit on, so έ- has no job.
• έγραψαμε -> γράψαμε — the accent may not move further back than the third syllable from the end, so an accented augment plus -αμε is impossible in principle.
• μίλησαμε -> μιλήσαμε — same rule inside a longer word: μι-λή-σα-με, not μί-λη-σα-με.
• Έγραφα ένα γράμμα και το έστειλα. -> Έγραψα ένα γράμμα και το έστειλα. — γράφ- is the continuous stem; continuous stem plus past endings gives the imperfect (“I was writing”), not a finished action.
• γράψαν -> έγραψαν (or γράψανε) — the short 3rd-plural ending -αν leaves the word two syllables long, so the augment stays; only the longer -ανε makes it droppable.
• επήγα -> πήγα — πήγα already starts with its own stressed syllable; never stack a second augment on a suppletive aorist.
• έβλεψα -> είδα — βλέπω takes its past from a different root, as do λέω → είπα and τρώω → έφαγα.

Tips

• Store each verb as a pair: ενεστώτας + 1st person aorist (γράφω - έγραψα, παίρνω - πήρα, μπορώ - μπόρεσα). From that one form the other five are automatic.
• Say the word out loud and count backwards three syllables. If your finger lands on thin air, you need the augment; if it lands on a syllable, you do not.
• The endings never change, not even for the wildest verb. Ήρθ-α, ήρθ-ες, ήρθ-ε, ήρθ-αμε, ήρθ-ατε, ήρθ-αν is the same skeleton as έγραψ-α.
• Treat -ανε (and the plural in general) as a register choice: -αν is neutral and safe in writing, -ανε is common and friendly in speech. Both are correct.
• You will meet unaccented augments such as εγράψαμε in older or deliberately formal texts. Do not imitate them — modern standard Greek writes γράψαμε.
• The mediopassive past (πλύθηκα, κοιμήθηκα) uses a different ending set in -θηκα; it is taught in lesson 52, so keep it apart for now.
• Do not agonise over aorist versus imperfect yet. Use the aorist for a whole, completed event; lesson 43 sets the two side by side.