4
Parsing a Greek Verb
I. Inflection
You have learned the Greek alphabet and other components of the Greek writing system. Let us turn now to Greek words: what they mean, how to form them, and how to understand them. We begin with perhaps the most essential word in a Greek sentence: the VERB. A verb describes an action. These actions most often are physical (to kick), mental (to think), or express states or conditions (to be).
An English verb form, on its own, often expresses only the action that is taking place, e.g. run, stop, exist. Greek, however, is a highly INFLECTED language. In other words, Greek INFLECTS, or changes, its verbs, nouns, pronouns, and adjectives to represent exactly how each of these words functions grammatically in a sentence. For a Greek verb, these inflections usually communicate FIVE pieces of information: PERSON, NUMBER, TENSE, MOOD, and VOICE.
1. PERSON indicates the subject of the verb.
- 1st person = I, we
- 2nd person = you, you all
- 3rd person = he/she/it, they, or anyone/anything else
2. NUMBER indicates whether the subject (“person”) is singular or plural.
- Singular: I, you, he/she/it, they, or any single subject
- Plural: we, you all, they, or any plural subject
The Greek SINGULAR and PLURAL operate much as they do in English. Greek, however, also has a DUAL number, which indicates that there are precisely two subjects. This number is rarely used by most authors, however. Here we concentrate on the much more common singular and plural. The dual number will be discussed as it is encountered in your readings.
3. TENSE indicates when the action happens.
English uses a combination of verb changes and/or additional words to indicate six main tenses:
- Present: run, stop
- Past: ran, stopped
- Future: will run, will stop
- Present Perfect: have (just) run, have (just) stopped
- Past Perfect (or Pluperfect): had run, had stopped
- Future Perfect: will have run, will have stopped
As we will see, Greek tenses are similar, with a few important differences.
4. MOOD refers to the “mode” of the verb.
Most often, the mood of the verb indicates whether the action is real or hypothetical in some way. English uses a combination of verb changes and/or additional words to indicate four moods.
- The INDICATIVE mood is most common, and expresses facts:
- she runs, he stops
- The IMPERATIVE mood gives commands:
- run! stop!
- The SUBJUNCTIVE mood expresses unreal or hypothetical actions, such as wishes, conditions, and possibilities:
- she might run, if he could stop…
- The INFINITIVE mood refers to action without a person or number. In practice, it functions much like a verbal noun. It is formed in English by adding the word to to the verb form:
- to run, to stop
Greek moods are similar, though again with some important differences.
5. VOICE indicates the relationship between the action of the verb and its subject.
English uses a combination of verb changes and/or additional words to indicate two possible voices.
- The ACTIVE voi