6 The verbal forms include the non-finite and the finite. The non-finite originally belongs to the substantive but as some of them (participles) admit of tense variation (i.e , present such as gacchan, aorist such as gran, perfect such as jugmivān and future such as gamisyjan) and all of them may govern a case like the finite verb they are grouped under the verb. The finite verb presents a very large variety of forms. It distinguishes two voices (active or parasmaipada and middle or ātmane pada which includes also the passive), three numbers (singular, dual and plural), three persons (first, second and third), five tenses (present, future, imperfect, aorist and perfect) and five moods (indicative, subjunctive, optative, imperative and injunctive). There are also secondary conjugations such as the causative, the denominative, the desiderative and the frequentative. There are different temporal and modal affixes, and the personal endings are often different in the different tenses and moods. Thus : - a., - aya -, - nå -, - nu - , - ya - etc. in the present tense ; reduplication in the perfect; - S - etc. in the aorist; - a - in the subjunctive etc., etc. 4. The language being entirely flexional there is not much scope for formal syntax. Each word bears the sign of its exact relation with other words in a sentence. There are however idioms in the use of cases and moods and tenses. The general characteristics of the our stages of Old Indo-Aryan may now be discussed.
