15.100 Forms of the Perfect Active Indicative

The perfect active indicative tense is fairly easy to recognize for two reasons:

1. Reduplication. The stem of the verb is reduplicated. When a verb begins with a consonant, this reduplication is very distinctive. The initial consonant is repeated, with a vowel inserted in-between the doubled consonant.

Notice in the last example that an aspirated consonant reduplicates without the aspiration (θ becomes τ-θ, φ becomes π-φ, χ becomes κ-χ).

Unfortunately, for verbs that begin with a vowel, the reduplication looks a lot like augmentation, because the initial vowel lengthens. However, even when the stem is not immediately recognizable, the perfect also has a distinctive set of endings (see #2).

2. Perfect tense endings. The perfect tense stem usually, but not always, ends in a kappa. The endings of the perfect are basically the same as the aorist past tense (except for the third person plural) - but because of the distinctive kappa in the stem, and the absence of augment, it is not difficult to tell that you are dealing with a perfect rather than with an aorist.