Do you ever use aorist (a past tense) for something in the immediate future?
Posted by alpidzonka@reddit | AskBalkans | View on Reddit | 23 comments
I'm thinking about Serbian, so this is a natural sentence for me:
Odoh ja, vi slobodno zablejte
(I'm heading out, you guys can hang around)
The "I'm heading out" (or "I'm off") part is literally "I (just) went"
Do Macedonians, Bulgarians and Greeks do this or is it a Serbian thing?
Poglavnik_Majmuna01@reddit
Kajkavian has no aorist tense and it is completely archaic in standard Croatian, so I can't really imagine a time when i used it.
deviendrais@reddit
Šta to reče
Poglavnik_Majmuna01@reddit
I mean it’s true, it’s archaic despite being part of the language.
If the only time the aorist tense is used nowadays is to say “odoh ja”, which in itself isn’t exactly a common phrase, then it’s safe to say the tense is archaic.
alpidzonka@reddit (OP)
I think the joke was that "reče" is also aorist, you're just not thinking about using it when you hear it.
Poglavnik_Majmuna01@reddit
I assumed that was the case but replied just to make sure. Sta to rece is also something that is quite foreign to me. I mean I’d say kaj velis and average Croat would always say sta si rekao, but sta to rece is odd.
Is the aorist tense much more common in Serbian?
LoudThinker2pt0@reddit
odo(h) ja.
Poglavnik_Majmuna01@reddit
Yeah that is one of the few examples that is actively used.
I can’t say that I ever used it tho.
benemivikai4eezaet0@reddit
Kind of, usually to express something that's very likely to happen and usually unfortunate. "Ей ся те убих" ("I just killed you") is used to mean "I'm gonna kill you now". "Отиде" ("it went") is similar, meaning something is doomed to be lost, like it just got messed up.
BamBumKiofte23@reddit
I use a similar phrase, "tin ékana, tha ta poúme" ("I just left, we'll talk"). It's not unusual in Greek.
ayayayamaria@reddit
We do that with one of the conditionals, ie something is so sure to happen, it already has.
"If you eat the left over pasta, I killed/have killed you".
Tomorr3@reddit
More like:
"If you eat the left over gyros, I killed/have killed you, re malaka 🤌🏻".
Ok_Stretch_405@reddit
Ika unë - i left -> meaning "ciao"
sal9067@reddit
The example you give in Serbian would also work in Greek. You can say "Έφυγα" (literally "I left") to signal that you're about to go.
pdonchev@reddit
Yes - аз тръгнах, идете ли? But it's not really something in the immediate future, it is still a proper past tense - the semantics is "I have already prepared to go, are you coming".
42not34@reddit
Romanian: a past tense is used for this. "Am plecat, voi mai rămâneți". (I left, you stay a bit longer). I don't have to have left already for this to be a legit sentence, it's used to mark the urgency of my need to leave.
Same-Alfalfa-18@reddit
In Slovenian we don't have aorist. We would say: (Jaz) Grem, vi pa lahko bluzite tukaj.
Grem is idem in present. We often do not use personal pronouns, so Jaz is in the brackets, because in 90% we would left it out.
Croatian also have aorist.
Poglavnik_Majmuna01@reddit
Standard Croatian has aorist but it is archaic. Kajkavian and chakavian don't even have it.
Same-Alfalfa-18@reddit
I though i heard that mostly in Serbia. Btw do you use plusquamperfekt? We have it in grammar, but never heard it.
Arktinus@reddit
Even in Standard Slovenian, such as in literature, the past perfect/pluperfect is rarely used.
Poglavnik_Majmuna01@reddit
Pluskvamperfekt is used but it is kind of unimportant as the perfekt tense can pretty much do the same job.
Capital-Ad-3795@reddit
in turkish we also do that. “Ben çıktım.”
Self-Bitter@reddit
Yes, used to give emphasis on the immediate response that is about to happen.
Like "έφυγα"=Ι left to say I am leaving right now,
or "Έφτασα"=Ι arrived to say I am there at any minute..
holyrs90@reddit
Yes