Ancient Greek for Everyone:A New Digital Resource for Beginning Greek

Unit 2 part 1: Introduction to the Greek Verb

2013 editionWilfred E. Majorwmajor@lsu.edu

Ancient Greek for Everyone

This class AGE Unit 2: Introduction to the Greek Verb• You have learned the Greek alphabet and other

components of the Greek writing system.• Now you begin learning Greek words: what they

mean, how to form them, and how to understand them.

• We begin with the most powerful category of Greek words, the part of speech called the VERB.

Ancient Greek for Everyone• A VERB describes an action. • An English verb by itself designates only the action

that is taking place: run, stop, be, … • A Greek verb, however, normally communicates

more information than just what the action is. • In fact, a Greek verb by itself usually communicates

FIVE pieces of information:

Ancient Greek for Everyone

• A Greek verb by itself usually communicates FIVE pieces of information: – Person– Number – Tense – Mood – Voice

Ancient Greek for Everyone

• A Greek verb by itself usually communicates FIVE pieces of information: – Person: The subject of the verb, that is, who is the

focus of the action – 1st person = the speaker (I, we) – 2nd person = person spoken to (you, y’all) – 3rd person = anyone/anything else (he/she/it, they, or

anyone/anything else you can name) – English uses separate words to indicate the person

(subject).

Ancient Greek for Everyone

• A Greek verb by itself usually communicates FIVE pieces of information: – Person– Number: whether the Person (subject)

is singular or plural– singular = I, you, he/she/it, or any single subject – plural = we, y’all, they, or any plural subject – Tense – Mood – Voice

Ancient Greek for Everyone

• A Greek verb by itself usually communicates FIVE pieces of information: – Person– Number: whether the person (subject)

is singular or plural– English uses separate words to indicate the number

of the person (subject) and marks a verb with a3rd person singular subject: runs, stops, is…

– Tense – Mood – Voice

Ancient Greek for Everyone

• A Greek verb by itself usually communicates FIVE pieces of information: – Person– Number – Tense: When the action happens

(past, present, future) – Mood – Voice

Ancient Greek for Everyone• Tense: When the action happens (past, present, future) • English uses a combination of verb changes or additions

and additional words to indicate the tense: – run, ran, have run, will run, do run, is running…– stop, stopped, have stopped, will stop, do stop, is stopping… – is, was, have been, is being…

Ancient Greek for Everyone• A Greek verb by itself usually communicates

FIVE pieces of information: – Person– Number – Tense – Mood: This refers to the “mode” of the verb (most

often indicating whether an action is real or hypothetical in some way).

– Voice

Ancient Greek for Everyone• Mood: This refers to the “mode” of the verb (most

often indicating whether an action is real or hypothetical in some way).

• English uses additional words to indicate the mood: – to run, could run, might run, should run, would run… – to stop, could stop, might stop, should stop, would stop… – to be, could be, might be, should be, would be…

Ancient Greek for Everyone• A Greek verb by itself usually communicates

FIVE pieces of information: – Person– Number – Tense – Mood: This refers to the “mode” of the verb (most

often indicating whether an action is real or hypothetical in some way).

– Indicative means the action is real. – Infinitive means the action without any time or subject. – Voice

Ancient Greek for Everyone• A Greek verb by itself usually communicates FIVE

pieces of information: – Person– Number – Tense – Mood – Voice: This indicates the role the subject plays in the action.

Ancient Greek for Everyone• A Greek verb by itself usually communicates FIVE

pieces of information: – Voice: This indicates the role the subject plays in the action. – Greek can distinguish three roles (voices): – Active: The subject causes the action • We run the program. • We stop the program. • I buy a drink.

Ancient Greek for Everyone• A Greek verb by itself usually communicates FIVE

pieces of information: – Voice: This indicates the role the subject plays in the action. – Greek can distinguish three roles (voices): – Middle: The subject is part or all of the action • We run. • We stop. • I buy (myself) a drink.

Ancient Greek for Everyone• A Greek verb by itself usually communicates FIVE

pieces of information: – Voice: This indicates the role the subject plays in the action. – Greek can distinguish three roles (voices): – Passive: The subject receives the consequence of the action • We are run by a computer. • We are stopped by a police officer. • The drinks are bought by me.

– Note: In Classical Greek, the passive voice is rare, but it becomes more common in Koine Greek.

Ancient Greek for Everyone• A Greek verb by itself usually communicates

FIVE pieces of information: – Person– Number – Tense – Mood – Voice

PARSING: To “parse” a Greek verb means to identify the above five qualities about a specific verb form.

Ancient Greek for Everyone

• PARSING: To “parse” a Greek verb means to identify the five qualities about a specific verb form.

• For example, a specific verb form could be – Third person – Singular – Present – Indicative – Active

• Once you know these five items and the verb’s meaning, you have identified the verb completely and understand what it means.

Ancient Greek for Everyone

AGE Unit 2: Introduction to the Greek Verb• Now you have learned the what information a Greek

verb conveys about an action. • Next we learn how a Greek verb conveys this

information. • You have seen how English verbs change, make

additions or use additional words to convey information.

Ancient Greek for Everyone• I am running. • You are running. • She is running.

• We are running. • Y’all are running. • They are running.

Building a Greek VerbConsider the verbs in the above sentences

Ancient Greek for Everyone• runningi • runningyou • runningshe

• runningwe • runningy’all • runningthey

Building a Greek VerbNow IMAGINE verbs like this!

Ancient Greek for Everyone• I do stop. • You do stop.• He does stop.

• We do stop. • Y’all do stop. • They do stop.

Building a Greek VerbConsider the verbs in the above sentences

Ancient Greek for Everyone• stopdoi • stopdoyou• stopdohe

• stopdowe • stopdoy’all • stopdothey

Building a Greek VerbNow IMAGINE verbs like this!

Ancient Greek for Everyone

Building a Greek verb• Those imaginary verbs work basically the way verbs work in

Greek. • Greek verbs for the most part communicate person, number,

tense, mood and voice by adding parts to the verb, rather than by using additional words.

• Building verbs this way can seem strange at first, but to a Greek, piling on words they way English does seems strange. Neither is better or more difficult, but they are different.

Ancient Greek for Everyone

Building a Greek verb• To begin building a Greek verb, start with the “stem.” • The stem tells you what action the verb describes:

δεικ = “show”

Ancient Greek for Everyone

Building a Greek verb• All the verbs in this unit are in the present tense. • So the stem needs a marker that says the verb is in the

present tense. • Adding a -ν- to the stem typically marks a verb as in the

present tense. It will be easier to pronounce this verb by adding –νυ–.

• So now the stem looks (and sounds) like this: – δεικνυ = “show” (in the present)

Ancient Greek for Everyone

Building a Greek verb• So now the verb is in the present tense. • The most common mood of Greek verbs is the

indicative (which means the action is real). This is also effectively the default mood for verbs.

• All the verbs in this unit are in the active voice, so the following verb forms are – Present tense – Indicative mood– Active voice

Ancient Greek for Everyone

Building a Greek verb• To indicate person and number, the verb needs distinct

endings, which are as follows:

• -μι = I (1st person singular) -μεν = we (1st person plural) • -ς = you (2nd person singular) -τε = y’all (2nd person plural) • -σι = (s)he, it (3rd person sing) -ασι = they (3rd person plural)

Ancient Greek for Everyone• δείκνυμι – I show, am showing, do

show. • δείκνυς – You show, are showing,

do show. • δείκνυσι – (S)he/it shows, is

showing, does show.

• δείκνυμεν – We show, are showing,

do show. • δείκνυτε – Y’all show, are showing,

do show. • δεικνύασι – They show, are showing,

do show.

Building a Greek VerbThe Present Indicative Active of δείκνυμι

Ancient Greek for Everyone• From Unit 1: Placing the accent:– On most Greek words, the “recessive” rule determines the

placement of the accent. This means:– If the last syllable of the word contains a single short

vowel, the accent “recedes” two syllables: – δίδοτε – It can recede only to the last short vowel sound of this

syllable (never to the first part), so the accent appears as an acute (“/”):

– ἄνθρωπος, δώσετε (= δοόσετε)

Ancient Greek for Everyone• From Unit 1: Placing the accent:– On most Greek words, the “recessive” rule determines the

placement of the accent. This means:– If the word has only two syllables and the last syllable of

the word contains a single short vowel, the accent “recedes” to the first syllable:

– δότε– or the first part of a long vowel sound: – δῶρον (= δόορον)

Ancient Greek for Everyone• From Unit 1: Placing the accent:– On most Greek words, the “recessive” rule determines the

placement of the accent. This means:– If the last syllable of the word contains a long vowel sound,

the accent “recedes” only one syllable: – διδότω. – It can recede only to the second part of this syllable, so the

accent always appears as an acute (“/”): – παραδώσω (= παραδοόσω = παραδοόσοο)

Ancient Greek for Everyone

Spell it Like It Sounds!• Remember: A word ending in -σι can add a final -ν

(“nu-movable”) to make pronunciation easier: – For example, εἴκοσι εἶσι εἴκοσιν εἶσιν. – This added -ν has no meaning; it simply helps

pronunciation. – For the verb δείκνυμι, this means δείκνυσι and

δεικνύασι can appear as δείκνυσιν and δεικνύασιν. It does not affect their parsing, meaning or translation.

Ancient Greek for Everyone• The second most common mood of Greek verbs is the

infinitive (which refers to the action without person, number or tense, so it needs only a single ending).

• The ending –ναι signals the verb is in the infinitive.

• δεικνύναι – “show” in the infinitive mood (mode)

• This form is the present, infinitive, active. • Note the placement of the accent. • We will learn the meanings and translations of the infinitive

mood while reading passages.

Ancient Greek for Everyone• A Greek verb by itself usually communicates

FIVE pieces of information: – Person– Number – Tense – Mood – Voice

PARSING: To “parse” a Greek verb means to identify the above five qualities about a specific verb form.

Ancient Greek for Everyone• PARSING: To “parse” a Greek verb means to identify the

above five qualities about a specific verb form. • For example, δείκνυμι is– First person – Singular – Present – Indicative – Active

• All of the above information, plus its stem meaning, tells you that this form means “I show,” or “I am showing” or “I do show.”

Ancient Greek for Everyone• When translating a Greek verb into English, – Do not worry about using two, three or more words in

English to translate just one in Greek. The two languages build their words differently.

– Try to see the action that the Greek verb describes. Then use the English that describes that same action.

– Sometimes you have multiple ways to translate a verb. Choose the way that works best in English.

– For example, δείκνυμι (first person, singular, present, indicative, active) legitimately translates as “I show,” or “I am showing” or “I do show.” Choose the one that works best in English.

Ancient Greek for Everyone• VOCABULARY: Although a Greek verb can morph into

many different forms, it is listed in a dictionary (Greek “lexicon”) under just one form: – First person – Singular – Present – Indicative – Active

• For example: δείκνυμι show

Ancient Greek for Everyone

Examples of Vocabulary entries • ἀπόλλυμι kill, destroy • δείκνυμι show• μίγνυμι mix

Ancient Greek for Everyone• μίγνυμι – I mix, am mixing, do

mix. • μίγνυς – You mix, are mixing, do

mix. • μίγνυσι – (S)he/it mixes, is mixing,

does mix.

• μίγνυμεν – We mix, are mixing, do

mix. • μίγνυτε – Y’all mix, are mixing, do

mix. • μιγνύασι – They mix, are mixing, do

mix.

Building a Greek VerbThe Present Infinitive Active is μιγνύναι

Ancient Greek for Everyone

Building a Greek verb• The stem of ἀπόλλυμι is:– ολ = “kill, destroy” – ολνυ ολλυ = “kill, die” (in the present)

• The combination –λν– always changes to –λλ– in Greek. • In practice, Greek always adds a prefix to this word, ἀπ(ό),

meaning “away,” similar to the way English can say “kill off.” Thus the stem actually looks (and sounds) like this:

– ἀπολλυ = “kill, destroy” (in the present) – This verb is rare except in this compounded form.

Ancient Greek for Everyone• ἀπόλλυμι – I kill, am killing, do kill.

• ἀπόλλυς – You kill, are killing, do

kill. • ἀπόλλυσι – (S)he/it kills, is killing,

does kill.

• ἀπόλλυμεν – We kill, are killing, do

kill. • ἀπόλλυτε – Y’all kill, are killing, do

kill. • ἀπολλύασι – They kill, are killing, do

kill.

Building a Greek VerbThe Present Infinitive Active is ἀπολλύναι

Ancient Greek for Everyone

• Next – practice with ἀπόλλυμι, δείκνυμι, μίγνυμι • The practice sheet provides all the forms of these three

verbs. We will draw forms at random from a hat, and you need to (1) say the word out loud (2) parse the form and (3) translate it into English.

– start AGE Unit 2 part 2: Six Common Greek verbs.