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).
To make the past tenses of the indicative mood, the vowel ε- (e-), called an "augment", is prefixed to the verb stem, e.g. aorist ἔ-λυσα (é-lusa) "I freed", imperfect ἔ-λυον (é-luon) "I was freeing".
For example, ἐσώθην (esṓthēn) (from σῴζω sōízō "I save") often means "I got back safely" rather than "I was saved": Ancient Greek verbs can be divided into two groups, the thematic (in which a thematic vowel /e/ or /o/ is added before the ending, e.g. λύ-ο-μεν (lú-o-men) "we free"), and the athematic (in which the endings are attached directly to the stem, e.g. ἐσ-μέν (es-mén) "we are".
These are very numerous, for example, λέγω (légō) "I say", γράφω (gráphō) "I write", πέμπω (pémpō) "I send", etc.
The endings of these tend to be regular: 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: The present infinitive active of thematic verbs is -ειν (-ein), e.g. λέγειν (légein) "to say".
Thematic verbs are also found in the middle voice, with the 1st person singular ending -ομαι (-omai) e.g. ἀποκρῑ́νομαι (apokrī́nomai) "I answer", γίγνομαι (gígnomai) "I become".
Other middle verbs, such as παύομαι (paúomai) "I cease (doing something)" (intransitive), have a corresponding active form: παύω (paúō) "I stop (something)" (transitive).
In the aorist tense, however, they differ from middle verbs in that they use the endings -σθην (-sthēn), -θην (-thēn), or -ην (-ēn), for example ἐδιώχθην (ediṓkhthēn) "I was pursued", ἐκελεύσθην (ekeleústhēn) "I was ordered", ἐβλάβην (eblábēn) "I was harmed"; whereas middle verbs tend to have an aorist ending in -σάμην (-sámēn), -άμην (-ámēn), or -όμην (-ómēn), for example ἐπαυσάμην (epausámēn) "I stopped", ἀπεκρινάμην (apekrinámēn) "I answered", ἐγενόμην (egenómēn) "I became".
Athematic verbs have -μι (-mi) in the 1st person singular of the present tense, e.g. εἰμί (eimí) "I am", φημί (phēmí) "I say", δίδωμι (dídōmi) "I give", τίθημι (títhēmi) "I put", ἵστημι (hístēmi) "I stand (transitive)".
[24] The active infinitive of athematic verbs ends in -ναι (-nai), e.g. εἶναι (eînai) "to be", ἰέναι (iénai) "to go", διδόναι (didónai) "to give".
Athematic verbs are also found in the middle voice, e.g. ἵσταμαι (hístamai) "I stand" or δύναμαι (dúnamai) "I am able", with endings as follows: The infinitive is -σθαι (-sthai).
Its endings are those of an athematic perfect tense, and go as follows:[25] The infinitive of οἶδα (oîda) is εἰδέναι (eidénai) "to know".
The Ancient Greek verbal system has seven tense-aspect forms, traditionally called "tenses" (χρόνοι, khrónoi, singular χρόνος, khrónos).
For example, the imperfect tense ἐπαίδευον (epaídeuon) "I was teaching" is based on the present stem with the addition of the prefix ἔ- (é-) (called an "augment", see below), and the pluperfect ἐπεπαιδεύκη (epepaideúkē) "I had taught" is formed from the perfect stem: Not all verbs have a future tense made with -σ- (-s-).
Other strong aorists are ἦλθον (êlthon) 'I came', ἔλαβον (élabon) 'I took', εἶπον (eîpon) 'I said', ἔφαγον (éphagon) 'I ate'; and in the middle voice ἐγενόμην (egenómēn) 'I became' and ἀφικόμην (aphikómēn) 'I arrived'.
The tenses of δίδωμι (dídōmi) "I give" are as follows: The aorist of this verb is irregular, since it ends in κα (ka).
The verbs τίθημι (títhēmi) "I put" and ἵημι (híēmi) "I send" are similar, with aorists ἔθηκα (éthēka) 3rd pl.
However, ἵστημι (hístēmi) "I stand (something)" does not follow this pattern and has a different aorist: The present stems of three of these verbs δίδωμι (dídōmi), τίθημι (títhēmi) and ἵστημι (hístēmi) are reduplicated as a progressive marker, meaning that the true stems δο- (do-), θε- (the-), and στα- (sta-) were doubled up in the present as δίδω-, τίθη-, and ἵστη- (originally σίστη-) .
This verb has only four principal parts, since there is no passive: This verb is made more complex by the fact that in Attic Greek (that is, the dialect of most of the major classical authors), the present tense (apart from the indicative mood), imperfect tense, and future are usually replaced by parts of the irregular verb εἶμι (eîmi) "I (will) go":[35] The indicative of εἶμι (eîmi) is generally used with future significance in the classical period ("I will go") but the other parts such as the infinitive ἰέναι (iénai) "to go" are not future in meaning.
The three past tenses (imperfect, aorist, and pluperfect), in the classical period, are made by adding a prefix ἐ- (e-), called an "augment", on the beginning of the verb.
[36] Thus from γράφω (gráphō) "I write" are made: This past-tense augment is found only in the indicative mood, not in the subjunctive, infinitive, participle, or other parts of the verb.
[66] The aorist ἐδειπνήσαμεν (edeipnḗsamen) would mean "we finished dinner" and would be a telic verb, implying that the action was carried through to its end, whereas the imperfect ἐδειπνοῦμεν (edeipnoûmen) would mean "we began eating dinner" and would be atelic, implying that the action was started but not necessarily completed.
For example, it can be something promised or predicted: It can also be used after ὅπως (hópōs) for strong commands and prohibitions:[74] The aorist tense (Greek ἀόριστος (aóristos) "unbounded" or "indefinite") describes a finished action in the past.
Often in narrative it is found mixed with present and imperfect tenses:[77] Often an aorist is equivalent to an English pluperfect tense, for example after ἐπεί (epeí) "when" or in relative clauses in sentences such as the following:[80] Another meaning of the aorist indicative is to refer to unreal (counterfactual) events in past time.
It refers to a situation that existed due to events that had taken place at an earlier time:[89] However, the pluperfect is much less frequently used in Greek than in English, since after conjunctions such as ἐπεί (epeí) "when", usually the aorist is used:[91] The future perfect tense (Greek συντελεσμένος μέλλων (suntelesménos méllōn) "going to be completed") is rarely used.
In the active voice only two verbs (τεθνήξω (tethnḗxō) "I will be dead" and ἑστήξω (hestḗxō) "I will be standing") have a separate form for the future perfect tense,[93] though a compound ("periphrastic") tense can be made with a perfect participle, e.g ἐγνωκὼς ἔσται (egnōkṑs éstai)[94] "he is going to have realised"; but even this is extremely rare.
It is often used when the meaning is may, for example in purpose clauses, especially those referring to present or future time:[101] The above example uses the present subjunctive, but the aorist subjunctive is equally correct, with a slightly different shade of meaning: Another very common use of the subjunctive is in indefinite subordinate clauses following a conjunction such as ἐᾱ́ν (eā́n) "if (it may be that)", ὅταν (hótan) "whenever", ὃς ἄν (hòs án) "whoever", ἕως ἄν (héōs án) "until such time as" etc., referring to present or future time.
The optative mood can generally be recognised because it has the letters οι (oi), αι (ai) or ει (ei) in the ending.
The particle ἄν (an) is added in the main clause to give the meaning "would":[110] However, the optative mood is not used in sentences referring to a hypothetical situation in the present or past; in such sentences the optative is replaced by the imperfect, aorist, or pluperfect indicative, with ἄν (an) in the main clause.
Like adjectives, they have gender, case, and number and agree with the nouns that they modify, and, like verbs, they have tense and voice.