Verb principle parts

Question

I've been learning greek for a couple months now and I'm loving it, but I am having trouble memorizing verb forms. Do verbs have a set of principle parts that you can derive the other forms from?

Answer 1

You've probably answered your question by now. But the answer: Yes. I can't speak to modern Greek, but if you're talking about ancient Greek, verbs come from six principal parts

1. present active indicative
2. future active indicative
3. aorist active indicative
4. perfect active indicative
5. perfect middle/passive indicative
6. aorist passive indicative

Every single verb form or participle is derived from the "tense stem" of one of the above. Therefore, it's important that you memorize all when learning a Greek verb, especially if there are any irregularities. It's especially important as many of the very common verbs derive from multiple roots. Let me know if you have a follow-up question.