This is reminding me of something I'm experiencing as I learn French. I've studied the present, imperfect, passé composé, and the simple past. With just those, I can puzzle out the combinations of imperfect + past participle, simple past + past participle, etc. But this is thanks to the similarity to English. It makes me wonder, how much more difficult this would be for someone who speaks a language entirely foreign to English, French, etc., for whom auxiliary verbs are not as common. Ancient Greek uses distinct conjugations for every combination, from voice (active, middle, passive), to aspect (habitual, simple, completed), to mood (indicative, subjunctive, optative). If I were an Ancient Greek speaker, French would be a nightmare!