GRAMMAR

Verb tenses in Greek

February 20, 2020

Χρόνοι ρημάτων

Today in class we talked about Greek verbs. We talked about how there are eight tenses in Greek, given by a combination of verbal aspect (indicating duration) and time (indicating past, present or future).

	Past	Present	Future
Continuous	έγραφα παρατατικός	γραφω ενεστώτας	θα γραφω εξακολουθητικός μέλλοντας
Simple	έγραψα αόριστος	—	θα γραψω συνοπτικός μέλλοντας
Completed	είχα γράψει υπερσυντέλικος	έχω γράψει παρακείμενος	θα έχω γράψει συντελεσμένος μέλλοντας

(Recall that the continuous present is used for the simple present as well.) I think it’s most clear to name the tenses as you see them in the table, with the combination of aspect and time, i.e. continuous past, completed present etc. I’ve also included the traditional Greek names.

The continuous tenses are formed from the continuous stem, and the simple ones are formed from the simple stem. The completed tenses are formed with a combination of the auxiliary verb έχω and the infinitive (always formed from the simple stem + ει).

You can think about the formation of the simple stem from the continuous stem with the addition of σ followed by a consonant change, such that

How/Where is the sound made?	Rule
Throat	$\kappa, \gamma, \chi + \sigma \rightarrow \xi$
Lips	$\pi, \beta, \phi + \sigma \rightarrow \psi$
Teeth (+ nose)	$\tau, \delta, \theta, \zeta, (\nu) + \sigma \rightarrow \sigma$

These forms are relevant to first conjugation Greek verbs, i.e. verbs that end in -ω. We also briefly touched on second conjugation verbs which end in -άω (αγαπάω, γελάω, etc.) and -ώ (καλώ, ευχαριστώ, etc.). The simple stem of second conjugation verbs is also formed with the addition of a σ to the continuous stem, although in this case there is a vowel change:

$$\alpha + \sigma \rightarrow \eta \sigma$$

Like αγαπάω $\rightarrow$ αγαπήσω and ευχαριστώ $\rightarrow$ ευχαριστήσω.

I made a final point about spelling: noun formation in Greek often happens with the simple stem. So, for example, η ευχαρίστηση, η οδήγηση, το γράψιμο, etc. Notice that in the case of the nouns formed from second conjugation verbs, the spelling of the second-last i sound makes sense as an η, since this is how the simple stem is formed.

All of this structure will be duplicated in the passive voice, which we will discuss in more detail in the future.

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