Hellenistic Greek © 2009, 2015
Lesson 8: The Greek Verb

Grammatical Discussion

Analysis of Verbs

Greek verbs may be analyzed in terms of aspect (or in some cases tense), mood, voice, person, and number. This lesson introduces you to these categories and presents most of the present tense verb forms.

Tense

The following two English sentences differ in terms of tense:

Karen plays tennis well.
Karen played tennis well.

You will notice that the difference in tense in the two English examples implies a difference in the time of the action. In the first example, the speaker indicates that whenever Karen plays tennis, she tends to play well. In the second sentence, however, the speaker indicates that Karen played well at some point in the past.

She’s playing tennis.

If this sentence were an answer to the question, “What is Karen doing?” it would imply that Karen is playing tennis right now. On the other hand, if the same sentence were an answer to the question, “What’s Karen doing tomorrow afternoon?” it would not imply anything about what she is doing right now.

Time is determined not merely by the form of the verb, but by the larger context.

For that reason, it is not possible to say that any particular Greek verb form always refers to the same time category as any particular English verb form. Instead, we must note the similarities and differences between Greek ways of indicating time and English ways of doing the same.

Aspect

The following English sentences differ in terms of aspect:

While both of these sentences refer to something that happened in the past, they refer to the past in very different ways. The first asserts that playing tennis was characteristic of Karen for a period of time, but no longer is. It's what she used to do. The second asserts something about what Karen was doing at a specific point in the past. It indicates nothing about whether she still plays tennis. This is not a difference of tense, but of aspect—the way the verb portrays the action it asserts.

As you learn each set of verb forms in this course, you will need to learn the aspect associated with it.

Mood

The grammatical category “mood” relates to the way an author wishes to portray the relationship between a statement and reality. Does the statement represent an actual fact? Does it represent a potential occurrence, a probable occurrence, or something certain to take place or to have taken place? Consider the following sentences:

Why are the first three sentence acceptable, but the last one not?

Words like “would” and “will” are modal auxiliaries. They indicate the mood of the second half of the example sentences. “Will”, in the last example, fails to indicate the mood demanded by the first part of the sentence in which it occurs. “I wish” indicates possibility, but not certainty. “He will stop” indicates certainty.

Like English, Greek has a means of expressing mood. In Greek, however, mood is not indicated by modal auxiliaries. Instead, each verb is marked by its ending for the appropriate mood.

All of the verbs presented in this lesson are indicative mood. That is, they are used in simple statements and questions, not usually in the kind of sentences where we would us a modal auxilliary such as should, could, or would in English.

Voice

Verbs may also be analysed in terms of voice. Consider the following two sentences:

The two sentences communicate similar information. The action in both cases is the same (biting). In both cases the dog does the biting. In both cases it is the man who is bitten.

In what sense do the sentences differ? They differ in the grammatical functions played by the various elements in the sentence. “The man” is the object in the first sentence, but the subject in the second one. The form of the verb changes from “bit” to “was bitten” to signal this change in the role of its object/subject. This change in the form of the verb is called a change in voice from the active to the passive voice.

The verb forms presented in this lesson are those of the active voice, the more basic voice.

Person

Verbs may also be analyzed in terms of grammatical person. The following simple sentences are stated in the first person:

In all of these sentences the subject ("I" or "we") refers to the writer or speaker. When this happens, we say that the statement is first person.

The following three simple sentences are second person:

In these sentences the subject ("you") refers to the reader or listener, not the speaker or writer. When this happens, we say the statement is second person.

The following simple sentences are all third person.

They are not home.
He left already.
She came early.
It is hot today.

In these sentences the subject does not represent the speaker or writer. It also does not represent the listener or reader. When this is the case, we say the statement is third person.

In Greek the ending of the verb is different for each of the three persons. Observe the following examples.

Because these endings indicate which person is meant, they are called the personal endings.

Number

What is wrong with the following sentence?

*They is tall.

While this sentence may be acceptable in some varieties of English, in formal academic English we would expect

In the first example the verb (“is”) has the wrong number. Number indicates whether the subject of the verb is pictured as one (singular) or more than one (plural). Since “they” is a plural form, and “is” indicates a singular subject, the string of words “They is tall” is ungrammatical in standard English.

Greek uses the verb ending to indicate number. Observe the following forms.

Identifying Verb Forms

When asked to identify a Greek verb form, you need to state its Tense/Aspect, Mood, Voice, Person, and Number in this order. For example, if you need to identify the verb πιστεύομεν, you would give the following information:

The Mood and Voice are the same for every verb presented in this lesson. You will learn more mood and voice forms later.

Lexical Form and Verb "Conjugations"

The first form for each verb in the vocabulary list is called the lexical form. It is the present, indicative, active, first, singular form. We call this form the lexical form because it is the form used to list all verbs in a standard lexicon or dictionary.

In this lesson, the lexical form of all of the verbs in the vocabulary list except two end with -ω. This ω is a present tense ending that indicates first person singular. It is equivalent to the English word, "I." The verb βλέπω means “I see” or “I am seeing."

Verbs that form their present, active, indicative, first, singular in this way are called "The Ω Conjugation." A conjugation is a list of verb endings, and the list of endings for these verbs begins with -ω. Most Greek verbs are ω conjugation verbs, but a few verbs that appear frequently in Hellenistic Greek literature use the ending -μι for the first person singular. The verb δίδωμι, for example, means “I give.” These are called "μι conjugation verbs."

Contraction

One group of ω conjugation verbs requires special attention. Notice that if we remove the personal ending (-ω) from ἀγαπάω (I love) we are left with the stem ἀγαπά-. This stem ends with a vowel. Verbs stems that end with α, ε, or ο undergo certain changes when the personal endings are added. A lexicon (dictionary) always shows the stem vowel, but that vowel will not be visible in the first person forms of the verb in any actual text you are asked to read. Instead of seeing ἀγαπάω, you will see ἀγαπῶ. Instead of seeing ἀκολουθέω, you will see ἀκολουθῶ. The vowel of the verb ending “contracts” with the stem vowel. The circumflex accent over the ending indicates that such contraction has taken place.

ἀγαπάω = ἀγαπῶ

ἀκολουθέω = ἀκολουθῶ

First Person Plural

To make the present tense first person ending of any verb plural, just add -μεν. When you do this, the ω of the singular form will change to its short form, ο, unless the verb is contracted.

βλέπω + μεν = βλέπομεν
We see

ἀγαπῶ + μεν = ἀγαπῶμεν (contracted form)
We love

Summary of Verb forms Presented in this lesson

In this lesson you have seen four of the six forms for the Greek Present Tense. Review them now, and commit them to memory. The remaining two forms are included as well, but appear in gray.

Second Person Present Tense Forms

To indicate second person singular (“You,” when referring to only one person), we add the ending -ς, and to indicate second person plural (“You,” when talking to more than one person) we add -τε.

If the verb is an ω conjugation verb, the vowel connecting this ending to the stem changes from an ο class vowel to an ε class vowel (unless the verb stem ends with α).

The second person singular form of βλέπω (I see), for example, is βλέπεις (You see), and the second person plural form is βλἐπετε (You/Y’all see).

If the verb stem ends with α, the α takes the place of the ε connecting vowel before the personal ending. Τhe second person singular of ἀγαπάω (I love), is ἀγαπᾷς (You love) and the second person plural is ἀγαπᾶτε (You/Y’all love).

Verbs of the μι conjugation use the same endings. The second person singular of δίδωμι (I give) is δίδως (You give) and the second person plural is δίδοτε (You/Y’all give).