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BelegCuthalion
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Post Quenya Aorist
on: September 30, 2004 04:13
So the aorist is mostly used as another present tense by the Third Age, instead of having a separate meaning like in ancient Greek? i got confused by it when i studied greek, quenya isnt any better...considering i arrived at the aorist in both languages at the same time.

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dirk_math
Quenya Workbook Mentor
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Post RE: Quenya Aorist
on: September 30, 2004 09:34
For English speakers the Quenya Aorist is actually quite easy, because in 90% of the cases we can formulate this rule:

English Simple Present = Quenya Aorist
English Present Continuous = Quenya Present Tense

E.g. look at the difference in meaning between
'leaves fall' and 'leaves are falling'. So the first sentence would be lassi lantar and the second lassi lantëar.

And the big difference between Greek and Quenya (both ancient and modern Greek though, as both have the same
aorist tense):
- The Greek aorist is a past tense, not a present tense
- In Greek the aorist is used much more frequently than the past tense, because the past tense is only used whenever an aorist is not possible
Yassë engë lómë, anarties calali.
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