The term aorist derives from the grammar of ancient Greek. In Pali, it can be regarded as a simple past tense. Note however, the use of the aorist tense in Pali covers both the simple past, the present perfect and occasionally also the imperfect aspect . For example, agami can mean: he/she went" (simple past), "he/she has gone" (present perfect), and occasionally (imperfect) "he/she was going. It should also be noted that the past participle is often used for the past tense. The aorist verb is often used with the prohibitive negation mā: mā agamāsi = do not go. mā atthāsi, = do not stand. mā bhuñji, = do not eat. Checkout this video tutorial on Tense and aspect in Pali. Tense vs Aspect & Participles in Pali Following on from the previous tutorial on tenses of the English Language, this tutorial looks at Tense & Aspect in the Pali language. You will see the difference between inflection and auxiliary verb... Formation o...
Pali language grammar tutorials. Learn to read the Pali language for yourself.