G R E E K  V E R B S
====================

This document uses a system of phonetic transcription called Sampa to represent the 
sounds of Greek. In this system, capital letters represent different sounds from 
small letters, and double quotes (") mean that the following syllable is 
stressed.

1. OVERVIEW OF FORMS

The Greek verb has two voices (active and passive), two aspects (continuous and 
noncontinuous) and three tenses (present, future and past). Like this:

  Active:
  Continuous                                 Noncontinuous
  Present Du"levo I am working               (na) Du"lepso I (should) work
  Future  Ta Du"levo I shall be working      Ta Du"lepso I shall work
  Past    "Duleva I was working              "Dulepsa I worked

  Passive:
  Continuous                                 Noncontinuous
  Present "dinome I am getting dressed       (na) di"To I (should) get dressed
  Future  Ta "dinome I shall be getting d.   Ta di"To I shall get dressed
  Past    di"nomuna  I was getting dressed   "diTika I got dressed

In addition there are a conditional tense, an imperative, and a set of perfective 
tenses made with the verb to have:

  Conditional:
  Ta "Duleva      I would work
  Ta di"nomuna    I would get dressed

  Imperative:
  "Duleve work!  "Dulepse work!  "disu get dressed!

  Perfective:
  "exo Du"lepsi / ndi"Ti     I have worked / got dressed
  Ta "exo Du"lepsi / ndi"Ti  I shall have worked / got dressed
  "ixa Du"lepsi / ndi"Ti     I had worked / got dressed

2. USE OF THE FORMS

2.1. Active versus passive

In principle, active verbs are those where the subject carries out the action 
('he ate the tiger'), while passive verbs are those where the subject suffers the 
action ('he was eaten by the tiger', or more colloquially 'he got eaten'). But 
Greek makes rather wider use of the passive forms than this:

- Some very common verbs are passive in form but have an active meaning - i.e. 
the subject carries out the action:
  "skjeptome  I think
  "stekome    I stand
  kji"mame    I sleep
Verbs with such meanings have no active form. Some grammarians call these verbs 
'deponent'.

- Some verbs take the active form when the action is done to something else, but 
the passive form when the action is done to the subject:
  "krivo    I hide (something)
  "krivome  I hide (myself)
  "pleno    I wash (something)
  "plenome  I wash (myself)
Some grammarians call these verbs 'reflexive'.
- Genuine passives - i.e. neither 'deponent' nore 'reflexive' - are rare in 
Greek, and a sentence such as 'he got eaten' would normally be rendered as 'they 
ate him'. But because many common words behave either like deponents or like 
reflexives, you still have to know all the passive forms.

- Three particular verbs take active forms in their continuous tenses and passive 
forms in their noncontinuous tenses. These are shown in the Vocabulary as 'mixed' 
verbs.

A number of verbs appear in the Vocabulary in both active and passive forms, with 
an appropriate difference of meaning: ma"zevo collect, ma"zevome get picked up. 
In theory any verb can be either active or passive, but this doesn't always seem 
to happen, so the best course is to treat the active and passive as separate 
verbs.

2.2. Continuous versus noncontinuous

English has both continuous and noncontinuous verb-forms: he was standing 
(continuous, denoting a state, or an action whose completion is not important) 
versus he stood (noncontinuous, denoting an event that is now over). Greek makes 
the same difference in the future and in the past (but see later for the 
noncontinuous present):
  Ta "Do tin e"leni      I shall see Helen (once)
  Ta "vlepo tin e"leni   I shall see Helen (repeatedly)
  tin "iDa               I saw her (once)
  tin "evlepa            I used to see her

2.3. Conditional, imperative, perfective

The conditional, as in English, is used when there is an 'if' present or implied: 
"Den Ta "Duleva I wouldn't work (if...). The imperative is used to give 
instructions. The perfectives have the same meanings as in English (and have no 
non-continuous forms).

2.4. Persons

In English verbs, the person carrying out the action is denoted by the pronoun 
immediately before the verb: 'I arrived', 'you did it'. In Greek it is the ending 
of the verb that defines the person: "Telo I want, "Telis, "Telete you want, and 
the pronoun is used only for emphasis. Greek recognises six 'persons' in the 
grammatical sense, and each of the tenses shown in the overview above varies its 
ending (see later) to denote these six persons:

        Singular         Plural
  1st   I                we
  2nd   you (informal)   you (formal)
  3rd   he/she/it        they

The 3rd sing. means 'he or she or it' in Greek - there is no distinction.

Like many languages, Greek has two forms for 'you', one informal and one formal. 
The informal form is used when addressing family, friends, children and animals; 
the formal form is used when addressing anyone else, and when addressing more 
than one person of whatever status. This usage is the same as that of French 
tu/vous and German Du/Sie - but in Greek you can use the informal form to 
practically anyone you've spoken to before, unless you feel that an air of 
particular formality is appropriate.

There is no satisfactory word in Greek for the indefinite pronoun 'one' in 
English, as is 'One doesn't do that'. Instead, use whichever person seems 
appropriate in the context - usually 'you (inf.)' or 'you (fml.)'.

3. FORMING THE TENSES

3.1. Resources

Greek uses four resources to make the different tenses:

- it can use a different stem. The active stems shown above are Dulev for the 
continuous and Duleps for the noncontinuous, while the passive stems are din and 
diT respectively.

- it can use different endings: o, a, ome, etc. in the overview above. This 
document uses a dot to separate the stem from the ending in places where that 
makes it clearer.

- it can add a particle such as Ta or na before the verb.

- it can move the stress to a different syllable: Ta Du"lepso (future) versus 
"Dulepsa (past).

3.2. Verb classes

We also need to distinguish between Class I verbs and Class II verbs, since they 
form the tenses differently. Fortunately the distinction is easy to make: Class I 
verbs are those whose dictionary-form is stressed on the stem - "vlepo, "krivome 
- whereas Class II verbs are those whose dictionary-form is stressed on the 
ending: mi"lo, bo"ro, Ti"mame, kra"tCeme. A few Class II verbs behave slightly 
differently from the majority, so I call them Class IIx and mark them in the 
Vocabulary with 'x'. Passives in eme behave slightly differently from passives in 
ame, but we don't need to give them names because their category is apparent from 
the dictionary-form.

Forming the tenses is dealt with in detail below.

4. VERB 'TO BE'

  Present                   Past
  "ime     I am             "imuna   I was
  "ise     you (inf.) are   "isuna   you (inf.) were
  "ine     he/she/it is     "itane   he/she/it was
  "imaste  we are           "imaste  we were
  "iste    you (fml.) are   "isaste  you (fml.) were
  "ine     they are         "itan    they were

It will be seen that we are and we were are the same in Greek (but "imastan we 
were can be used if the context doesn't make the meaning clear). There are also 
other variant forms, which I don't list. There is no noncontinuous. The future is 
made by prefixing Ta, usually with vowel elision: Ta "ime or "Tame I shall be.

5. CONTINUOUS PRESENT

English has two present tenses, one continuous and one noncontinuous: I work and 
I am working. In Greek the continuous present is used to render both meanings: 
Du"levo tin i"mera I work during the day, Du"levo "tora I'm working now. The 
Greek noncontinuous present has other functions, described later.

5.1. Active continuous present

To form the active continuous present, add personal endings to the continuous 
stem:
          Class I      Class II    Class IIx
          "ftan.o      mi"l.o      bo"r.o
          'reach'      'speak'     'can'
  I:      "ftan.o      mi"l.ao     bo"r.o
  you:    "ftan.is     mi"l.as     bo"r.is
  he:     "ftan.i      mi"l.ai     bo"r.i
  we:     "ftan.ume    mi"l.ame    bo"r.ume
  you:    "ftan.ete    mi"l.ate    bo"r.ite
  they:   "ftan.une    mi"l.ane    bo"r.une

Notes:

- in Class I verbs the stress remains on the stem; in Class II and Class IIx 
verbs it remains on the ending.

- Class II verbs have a throughout the ending, the dictionary-form mi"lo becoming 
mi"lao colloquially. Other vowels are however found in the ending in higher 
styles.

- Class IIx has the same vowels as Class I (except in the 2nd plur.), but with 
the stress on the ending instead of on the stem.

- final e in the 3rd plur. may be omitted.

5.1.1. Shortened forms

A few Class I verbs whose stem ends in a vowel or G have shortened forms of the 
active continuous present. These shortened forms are used side by side with the 
longer forms, but are more colloquial. They are shown in the Vocabulary with an 
x: a"kuo x.

          Full     Shortened   Full       Shortened
          'hear'               'say'
  I:      a"kuo    a"kuo       "leGo      "leo
  you:    a"kuis   a"kus       "lejjis    "les
  he:     a"kui    a"kui       "lejji     "lei
  we:     a"kuume  a"kume      "leGume    "leme
  you:    a"kuete  a"kute      "lejjete   "lete
  they:   a"kuune  a"kune      "leGune    "lene

          'be at fault'        'eat'
  I:      "fteo    "fteo       "troGo     "troo
  you:    "fteis   "ftes       "trojjis   "tros
  he:     "ftei    "ftei       "trojji    "troi
  we:     "fteume  "fteme      "troGume   "trome
  you:    "fteete  "ftete      "trojjete  "trote
  they:   "fteune  "ftene      "troGune   "trone

Similarly "Tes you (inf.) want instead of "Telis, and "pao "pas "pai "pame "pate 
"pane as a frequently used alternative to pi"jjeno.

5.2. Passive continuous present

Passive verbs form their continuous present by adding passive endings to the 
continuous stem:

        Class I         Class II       Class II
        'get up'        'sleep'        'get tired'
I:      "din.ome        kji"m.ame      va"rjj.eme
you:    "din.ese        kji"m.ase      va"rjj.ese
he:     "din.ete        kji"m.ate      va"rjj.ete
we:     di"n.omaste     kji"m.umaste   va"rjj.umaste
you:    "din.este       kji"m.aste     va"rjj.este
they:   "din.onde       kji"m.unde     va"rjj.unde

Notes:

- in Class I verbs the stress remains on the stem, except for the 1st plur. 
di"nomaste, where the ending is three syllables long and must therefore always 
carry the stress. In Class II verbs the stress remains on the ending.

- verbs ending in ame resemble their active counterpart mi"lo in that a is 
present in four of the six endings, u being used in the other two. Verbs ending 
in eme have e where verbs in ame have a.

- the three 'mixed' verbs form their continuous present tense like "dinome.

5.3. Similarities of sound

The endings ete and ate refer to 'you (fml.)' when added to active verbs, but to 
'he/she/it' when added to passive verbs; similarly the endings ume and ame refer 
to 'we' on active verbs, but to 'I' on passive verbs (passive ome not being 
readily distinguished from active ume in speech). So you need to know whether a 
verb is normally active or passive to know which person is meant:
  "ftanete   you (fml.) arrive
  si"konete  he gets up

  mi"late    you (fml.) speak
  Ti"mate    he remembers

  "Telume    we want
  "erxome    I come

  mi"lame    we speak
  kji"mame   I sleep

6. NONCONTINUOUS STEM

6.1. Forming the stem

As can be seen in the Vocabulary, every Greek verb has two stems, one continuous 
and one noncontinuous: the continuous stem is used to make the continuous tense, 
and the noncontinuous to make the noncontinuous tenses. There is no reliable way 
of predicting one stem from the other, so at the end of the day you have to learn 
each verb individually (and not all dictionaries list both stems!). But the 
following patterns are worth noting:

- most Class I active verbs (Types a to f) form the noncontinuous by adding s to 
the continuous stem, with various modifications to the resulting 
consonant-cluster.

- Class I active verbs of Types g to k don't add s.

- all Class II active verbs (i.e. Types l and m) add s to form the noncontinuous. 
There is some variation in the vowel preceding the s.

- the passive noncontinuous is formed from the active noncontinuous stem.

- all passive noncontinuous forms end in "o, and usually "To, and the stress 
always falls on the last syllable.

Noncontinuous forms show a number of alternatives: for example "Doso (from "Dino 
Type k), is "Doko in very popular speech, while epitre"fTo (from epi"trepome, 
Type p) has the more learned form epitra"po. Also, passive noncontinuous forms 
that end in "sTo or "fTo are often pronounced "sto and "fto (see under 
Pronunciation). Alternatively the p of Type p verbs may be retained under learned 
influence: skjep"To. So this verb can appear as skjep"To, skjep"to, skje"fTo or 
skje"fto.

6.2. Change of Class

The stress can fall on the stem in the continuous form but on the ending in the 
noncontinuous form, and vice versa, so a verb can change from Class I to Class 
II, and vice versa when changing aspect. As follows:

- all passive verbs, of either Class, are Class IIx in the noncontinuous.

- all active Class II verbs (Types l and m) change to Class I in the 
noncontinuous.

- most active Class I verbs don't change Class, but a few (Types h and i) change 
to Class II in the noncontiuous.

7. NONCONTINUOUS PRESENT

7.1. Formation

To form the noncontinuous present, add the active endings of the appropriate 
Class (I or IIx) to the noncontinuous stem. Since the noncontinuous is most often 
used after the particle na, I show that too:

         'lose'        'ask'           'get tired'
  I:     na-"xas.o     na-ro"tis.o     na-vare"T.o
  you:   na-"xas.is    na-ro"tis.is    na-vare"T.is
  he:    na-"xas.i     na-ro"tis.i     na-vare"T.i
  we:    na-"xas.ume   na-ro"tis.ume   na-vare"T.ume
  you:   na-"xas.ete   na-ro"tis.ete   na-vare"T.ite
  they:  na-"xas.une   na-ro"tis.une   na-vare"T.une

The few active Class I verbs that change to Class IIx in the noncontinous (Types 
h and i) behave as follows (note the change from G to jj in "vGo):

         'say'       'go out'      'go up'
  I:     na-"p.o     na-"vG.o      n-ane"v.o
  you:   na-"p.is    na-"vjj.is    n-ane"v.is
  he:    na-"p.i     na-"vjj.i     n-ane"v.i
  we:    na-"p.ume   na-"vG.ume    n-ane"v.ume
  you:   na-"p.ite   na-"vjj.ite   n-ane"v.ite
  they:  na-"p.une   na-"vG.une    n-ane"v.une

Verbs of Type t take active Class I forms in the noncontinuous:

         'sit'           'come'        'come' (see note)
  I:     na-ka"Tis.o     na-"erT.o     "n-art.o
  you:   na-ka"Tis.is    na-"erT.is    "n-art.is
  he:    na-ka"Tis.i     na-"erT.i     "n-art.i
  we:    na-ka"Tis.ume   na-"erT.ume   "n-art.ume
  you:   na-ka"Tis.ete   na-"erT.ete   ("n-art.ete)
  they:  na-ka"Tis.une   na-"erT.une   "n-art.une

Note: The shortened forms "n-arto etc. are arrived at by phonetic processes 
described under Pronunciation, and are very common (except for "n-artete) in the 
colloquial language.

"fao, the noncontinuous of "troGo, behaves like "pao: "fao "fas "fai "fame "fate 
"fane.

7.2. Use of the noncontinuous present

The noncontinuous present can be used only after the particles na and Ta and a 
few conjunctions. In all cases it means that the action is seen as having an end, 
or at any rate as not running on indefinitely:
  an "fai            if he eats (once)
  an "troi           if he (makes a habit of) eating
  "Telo na-"Dulevo   I want to work (habitually)
  "Telo na "Dulepso  I want to do some work
The noncontinuous present cannot stand without such an introductory particle.

8. CONTINUOUS AND NONCONTINUOUS FUTURE

To make the continuous future, prefix Ta to the continuous present; to make the 
noncontinuous future, prefix Ta to the noncontinuous present:
  Ta-Du"levume "kaTe "mera       we'll be working every day
  Ta-va"rjjeme me-to-"jjani      I'll be getting bored with Yannis
  Ta-Du"lepsume "avrjjo          we'll do some work tomorrow
  Ta-vare"To me-a"fti-ti-Du"lja  I'll get bored with that work

The negative Den precedes Ta:
  De-Ta-Du"levume "kaTe "mera  we won't be working every day
  De-Ta-vare"To me-to-"jjani   I won't get bored with Yannis

9. THE PARTICLE na

9.1. Using na to join verbs

Virtually all languages have a mechanism for joining two verbs together; English 
puts the second verb in the infinitive: we want to eat, they decided to leave. 
Greek has no infinitive, so it puts the second verb in the present (usually 
noncontinuous) and joins the two verbs with na. This means that the second verb, 
as well as the first, has to show personal endings:
  "Telo na-"erTo      I want to come
  "Telis na-"erTis    you (inf.) want to cpme
  "Teli na-"erTi      he/she/it wants to come
  "Telume na-"erTume  we want to come
  "Telete na-"erTete  you (fml.) want to come
  "Telune na-"erTune  they want to come

The second part of these expressions is a complete clause in Greek (I want that I 
should come), so different meanings can be created by using different personal 
endings on the two verbs:
  "Telo na-"erTis     I want you (inf.) to come
  "Telo na-"erTi      I want him come
  "Telume na-"erTete  we want you (fml.) to come
  "Telete na-"erTo    you (fml.) want me to come

Some other common expressions followed by na and either the noncontinuous or 
continuous present according to meaning are:

- el"pizo hope to:
  el"pizo na-jji"riso "avrio I hope to come back tomorrow

- ko"ndevo be close (to doing sthg.):
  ko"ndevi na-stama"tisi he's close to stopping, he's nearly stopping

- m-a"resi I like to:
  m-a"resi na-"troGo e"ljes I like eating olives

- sko"pevo intend to:
  "pote sko"pevis na-"maTis elini"ka? when do you intend to learn Greek?

- "skjeptome think of:
  "skjeptonde na-"fiGune they're thinking of leaving

- "ksero know (how to):
  DeN-"gzeri na-"Grafi he doesn't know how to write

- "leGo talk about:
  "lei na-jji"risi he's talking about going back

- bo"ri (3rd sing. of boro) it's possible:
  bo"ri na-"erTume perhaps we'll come

- Den-a"ksizi it's not worth:
  Den-a"ksizi na-stenoxori"Tis it's not worth your getting annoyed

- apaGo"revete (3rd sing.) it is forbidden:
  apaGo"revete na-"fas pso"mi it's forbidden for you (inf.) to eat bread

- epi"trepete (3rd sing.) it's allowed:
  epi"trepete na-"fiGume? is it allowed that we leave? are we allowed to leave? 
  Used by itself, epi"trepete means May I?

10. Using na as a noun-clause

Expressions introduced with na are of course noun-clauses, and have four 
important further uses:

- after adjectives:
  ka"litero na-"fame e"Do it's better for us to eat here

- after the prepositions "Dixos and xo"ris without:
  Du"levume "Dixos na-pliro"nomaste we work without getting paid

- after the preposition jja to to indicate purpose:
  "erxome jja-na-"Do to-"spiti I'm coming in order to see the house

- standing alone, to indicate a possible but not actual course of action:
  na-"fiGo?          are you suggesting that I should leave?
  "pu na-"pame?      where are we to go?
  "pote na-"erTume?  when would you like us to come?

As a noun-clause, an expression with na can begin with the definite article: to 
na-"fijjis a"mesos "ine to-ka"litero your leaving immediately is the best.

10.1. Negative of na

na is made negative by adding min, not Den:
  "Telo na-"min-"erTis         I want you not to come
  bo"rune na-"mi-"fiGune       they might not leave
  "ti na-"mi-"fao?             what am I not to eat?
  Du"levo jja-na-"mi-va"rjjeme I work so as not to be bored
  to-na-"min-"dros...          your policy of not eating...

This difference between min and Den enables Greek to make distinctions of meaning 
which English has to make in other ways:
  De-"Teli na-stama"tisi   she doesn't have a desire to stop
  "Teli na-"mi-stama"tisi  she has a desire to not stop
  Dem-"brepi na-"pate      it isn't necessary that you should go
  "prepi na-"mim-"bate     it's necessary that you should not go