Ancient Greek verbs have four moods (indicative, imperative, subjunctive and optative), three voices (active, middle and passive), as well as three persons (first, second and third) and three numbers (singular, dual and plural).
In the indicative mood there are seven tenses: present, imperfect, future, aorist (the equivalent of past simple), perfect, pluperfect, and future perfect. (The last two, especially the future perfect, are rarely used). In the subjunctive and imperative mood, however, there are only three tenses (present, aorist, and perfect). The optative mood, infinitives and participles are found in four tenses (present, aorist, perfect, and future) and all three voices.
The distinction of the "tenses" in moods other than the indicative is predominantly one of aspect rather than time.
The different persons of a Greek verb are shown by changing the verb-endings; for example () "I free", () "you free", () "he or she frees", etc. There are three persons in the singular ("I", "you (singular)", "he, she, it"), and three in the plural ("we", "you (plural)", "they"). In addition there are endings for the 2nd and 3rd persons dual ("you two", "they both"), but these are only very rarely used.
A distinction is traditionally made between the so-called athematic verbs (also called mi-verbs), with endings affixed directly to the root, and the thematic class of verbs which present a "thematic" vowel or before the ending. The endings are classified into primary (those used in the present, future, perfect and future perfect of the indicative, as well as in the subjunctive) and secondary (used in the aorist, imperfect, and pluperfect of the indicative, as well as in the optative).
To make the past tenses of the indicative mood, the vowel (), called an "augment", is prefixed to the verb stem, e.g. aorist () "I freed", imperfect () "I was freeing". This augment is found only in the indicative, not in the other moods or in the infinitive or participle. To make the perfect tense the first consonant is "reduplicated", that is, repeated with the vowel e ( () "I have freed", () "I have written"), or in some cases an augment is used in lieu of reduplication (e.g. () "I have found"). Unlike the augment of past tenses, this reduplication or augment is retained in all the moods of the perfect tense as well as in the perfect infinitive and participle.
The Ancient Greek verbal system preserves nearly all the complexities of Proto-Indo-European (PIE). Ancient Greek also preserves the PIE middle voice and adds a passive voice, with separate forms only in the future and aorist (elsewhere, the middle forms are used).
Voices The Ancient Greek verb has three voices: active, middle, and passive. The middle and the passive voice are identical in the present, imperfect, perfect, and pluperfect tenses, but differ in the future and aorist tenses.
Active voice Active voice verbs are those which end in -ō or -mi in the 1st person singular of the present tense. An active voice verb can be intransitive, transitive or reflexive (but intransitive is most common): Xenophon, Hellenica 1.1.8
He sailed to Athens.
.Xenophon, Hellenica 4.4.14
They were guarding the walls.
.Xenophon, Hellenica 7.4.19 . He killed himself.
Middle voice Other verbs end in (-omai) or (-mai) in the 1st person singular of the present tense. These can be either passive or non-passive in meaning. When the meaning of such a verb is not passive, it is known as a "middle voice" verb.
Middle voice verbs are usually intransitive, but can also be transitive. Often the middle endings make a transitive verb intransitive: (paúomai) "I stop (intransitive)" (hístamai) "I stand (intransitive)"
Sometimes there is a reflexive meaning or an idea of doing something for one's own benefit: () "I have a bath" () "I take for myself, I choose" () "I send for someone"
Sometimes there can be a reciprocal meaning: () "to make a treaty"
Quite a number of verbs which are active in the present tense become middle in the future tense, e.g.: () "I will take" () "I will hear" () "I will be"
Deponent middle verbs A number of common verbs ending in () or () have no active-voice counterpart. These are known as "deponent" verbs.
Deponent middle verbs include verbs such as the following. Some have a "weak" aorist: () "I receive" – aorist: () () "I fight" – aorist: () () "I answer" – aorist: ()
With "strong" aorist: () "I become" – aorist: () () "I arrive" – aorist: () () "I find out" – aorist: () () "I promise" – aorist: ()
Irregular: () "I come" – aorist: ()
Aorist middle Some middle deponent verbs have a weak aorist tense formed with (), e.g. (), but frequently they have a strong aorist middle such as () "I arrived" or () "I became". ( () "I come" is irregular in that it uses a strong aorist active () "I came" as its aorist tense.)
Passive deponent verbs All the above, since they have an aorist in the middle voice, are known as middle deponents. There are also deponent passive verbs with aorists in (), such as the following: () "I am able" – aorist: () () "I am minded to, I want" – aorist: () () "I think" – aorist: ()
Sentences with deponent verbs
.Xenophon, Hellenica 7.1.38 . He received the gifts.
.Xenophon, Anabasis 6.6.5 . When the Athenians came near, the two sides began fighting.
Xenophon, Cyropaedia 5.4.31
He became unable to say any more.
Passive voice Occasionally a verb ending in (-omai) has a clear passive sense. If so, it is said to be in the passive voice: .Lysias, 26.2 . The city was being ruled by the Spartans.
.Isaeus, 6.63 . It is written in the law. ( it has been written)
Usually when used passively, (-omai) verbs have an aorist tense containing (-thē-) in the ending: .Aeschines, 3.118 . Those men were deservedly honoured.
Occasionally, an aorist passive can have an ending with -η- (-ē-). This is known as the 2nd aorist or strong aorist passive, and uses a different verb-stem from the present. In the example below, the stem is instead of the present stem : .Thucydides, 2.99.5 . The majority were killed.
Deponent middle verbs can also be made passive in some tenses. Thus αἱρέομαι (hairéomai) "I choose" has an aorist passive ᾑρέθην (hēiréthēn) "I was chosen": .Lysias, 12.65 . He was chosen by them as general.
The endings with -θη- (-thē-) and -η- (-ē-) were originally intransitive actives rather than passives and sometimes have an intransitive meaning even in Classical Greek. For example, ἐσώθην (esṓthēn) (from sōízō "I save") often means "I got back safely" rather than "I was saved": .Demosthenes, 56.41 . The ship did not get back safely to Piraeus.
Thematic and athematic verbs Ancient Greek verbs can be divided into two groups, the thematic (in which a thematic vowel or is added before the ending, e.g. () "we free"), and the athematic (in which the endings are attached directly to the stem, e.g. () "we are". Thematic verbs are much more numerous.
Thematic verbs
Active verbs Thematic verbs, in the 1st person singular of the present tense active, end in (). These are very numerous, for example, () "I say", () "I write", () "I send", etc. The endings of these tend to be regular:
I say, you say, he/she/it says, (you two say, they both say,) we say, you () say, they say
The forms in brackets are the dual number, used for two people, and which exists only in the 2nd and 3rd person; it is rather rare, but still used sometimes by authors such as Aristophanes and Plato: .Plato, Ion 531a . Homer and Hesiod both say the same things.
The present infinitive active of thematic verbs is (), e.g. () "to say".
Middle verbs Thematic verbs are also found in the middle voice, with the 1st person singular ending () e.g. () "I answer", () "I become". The endings of the present tense go as follows:
I, you (singular), he/she/it, (you two, the two of them), we, you (plural), they
The middle present infinitive is (), e.g. () "to answer".
Some middle verbs are attested in the first person dual, albeit rarely: Sophocles, Philoctetes 1079
And so we two are going
Many middle-voice verbs, such as () "I answer", are deponent, that is to say, they have no corresponding active form. Other middle verbs, such as () "I cease (doing something)" (intransitive), have a corresponding active form: () "I stop (something)" (transitive).
Passive verbs Passive verbs, in the present, imperfect, and perfect tenses, have exactly the same endings as middle verbs. Examples are () "I am pursued" and () "I am ordered (by someone)".
In the aorist tense, however, they differ from middle verbs in that they use the endings (), (), or (), for example () "I was pursued", () "I was ordered", () "I was harmed"; whereas middle verbs tend to have an aorist ending in (), (), or (), for example () "I stopped", () "I answered", () "I became".
Contracted verbs
A special class of thematic verbs are the contracted verbs. In the dictionary these are entered as ending (), () or (), for example () "I see", () "I do", () "I show"; but in most cases when they are found in a text the vowel () contracts with the ending to make a single vowel. Thus the present tense of () "I see" goes as follows:
I see, you see, he/she/it sees, (you both see, they both see,) we see, you () see, they see
while the present tense of () "I do" is as follows:
I do, you do, he/she/it does, (you both do, they both do,) we do, you (plural) do, they do
and the present tense of () "I show" is as follows:
I show, you show, he/she/it shows, (you both show, they both show,) we show, you (plural) show, they show
The present infinitive active of the three types of contracted verbs is () "to see", (), "to do", () "to show".
Contracted verbs are also found in the middle and passive voices, e.g. () "I arrive" and () "I am honoured".
Athematic verbs
Active Athematic verbs have () in the 1st person singular of the present tense, e.g. () "I am", () "I say", () "I give", () "I put", () "I stand (transitive)". In the middle voice they end in e.g. () "I am able". The present tense of () "I (will) go" is generally used with future meaning in the classical period.
These verbs present many irregularities in conjugation. For example, the present tense of () "I am" goes as follows:
I am, you are, he/she/it is, (you both are, they both are), we are, you (plural) are, they are.
The present tense of the verb () "I (will) go" is as follows:
I will go, you will go, he/she/it will go, (you both will go, they both will go), we will go, you (plural) will go, they will go
whereas the present tense of () "I give" goes as follows:
I give, you give, he/she/it gives, we give, you (plural) give, they give
The dual of this verb, theoretically (), is not found.Perseus PhiloLogic search engine
The active infinitive of athematic verbs ends in (), e.g. () "to be", () "to go", () "to give".
Middle Athematic verbs are also found in the middle voice, e.g. () "I stand" or () "I am able", with endings as follows:
I, you (singular), he/she/it, (you two, the two of them), we, you (plural), they
The infinitive is ().
The verb () The verb () "I know", is irregular. Its endings are those of an athematic perfect tense, and go as follows:
I know, you know, he/she/it knows, (you both know, they both know), we know, you (plural) know, they know
The infinitive of () is () "to know".
Tenses
The tense system The Ancient Greek verbal system has seven tense-aspect forms, traditionally called "tenses" (, , singular , ). The temporal distinctions only appear in the indicative mood as shown on the table below:Based on table in perfectiveaspect imperfectiveaspect perfectaspect primarysequence futuretime future future perfect presenttime presentFor perfective present see perfect secondarysequence pasttime aorist,(imperfect) imperfect pluperfect