Home » Class Notes » BBG 16: Present Indicative Active
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Review and Addenda
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- Verbs describe an action or a state of being (15.2)
- Verbs have Person, Number, Tense, Voice and Mood
- parse in this order, along with Lexical Form and Inflected Meaning (7 elements in a parsed verb)
- Greek verbs do not have case.
- Person: 1st (person speaking), 2nd (person spoken to) or 3rd (person or thing spoken about)
- Since Greek verbs have person implicit in the personal endings, the subject does not have to be explicitly expressed. e.g. “διδάσκω” is a complete sentence.
- Number: Singular or Plural (15.14, 16)
- Tense: Present, Imperfect, Future, Aorist, Perfect and Pluperfect (includes both Time and Aspect – more on this below) (15.16)
- Voice (15.11,18): Active, Middle, Passive – relationship between the verb and the subject, e.g. the subject did the action (Active), or the action was done to the subject (Passive), or the action somehow returned to the subject (Middle)
- Mood: the relationship between the verb and reality, e.g. is it a statement of fact, something probable, something desired, a command, etc., or you could say, “something that is” “something that may be” etc. (15.11)
- Finite Moods: Indicative, Subjunctive, Optative, Imperative (we will have only the Indicative Mood this semester)
- Infinite Mood is the “Infinitive” (verbal noun), e.g. “to go” to “to boldly split infinitives as they have been split before”
- Time – when the action occurred, from the point of view of the speaker or writer (Past, Present or Future)
- Aspect (15.8, 17) – what kind or type of action the verb describes (this the genius of the Greek verb):
- Simple (or undefined) “I eat”
- Continuous (imperfective) “I am eating”
- Completed (perfective) “I have eaten”
- Completed aspect can be punctiliar (snapshot vs. movie [continuous]) – must determine by context (15.9)
- We can express the same verb, with the aspects above, in a different time e.g. in the past: “I ate” “I was eating” “I had eaten”, or in the future: “I will eat” “I will be eating” “I will have eaten”
- Verbs must agree with their subject in Person and Number
- example for number: “We is studying Greek” or “We are studying Greek” (or Ebonic: “We be studying Greek”)
- example for person: “I tells you the truth” or “I tell you the truth” (or Ebonic: “I be telling y’all da troof”)
- This is done with inflection in Greek, i.e. the personal endings on verbs.
- As in English 3 persons and 2 numbers (singular and plural)
- Lexical Form is always the 1st Person Singular Present Active Indicative
- Greek verbs do not have case.
Present Indicative Active
- Action usually occurs in present time, from the point of view of the speaker or writer (16.14)
- Aspect is either Simple (Undefined) or Continuous (Imperfective) (16.13)
- The Active voice indicates that the subject is performing the action of the verb
- The Indicative mood states a fact or asks a question. The relationship of the verb to reality is that of actuality, as opposed to wish, desire, probability, command.
- Components: Present Tense Stem, Connecting Vowel and Personal Ending (16.3)
- Tense Stem (16.4) – the most basic form of the verb, like the stem of a noun.
- It carries the basic, primitive meaning of the verb
- It is usually the same in all tenses
- You find the stem by removing the connecting vowel, and personal ending.
- Connecting Vowel (16.5) (a.k.a “thematic vowel”) -
- makes verbs more euphonious, i.e. easier to pronounce
- when personal ending begins with μ or ν it is omicron
- otherwise it is epsilon
- when there is no ending, it can be either
- Personal Ending (16.6,11)
- designates Person and Number
- personal endings indicate the agreement of the verb with its subject (in person and number)
- when subject is expressed, you can confirm by checking verb’s personal ending
- either Primary or Secondary – the Present Tense uses Primary endings
- Active Voice (16.8) – subject does the action, as compared with Middle and Passive Voices
- The Paradigm and the endings (16.10, 16.11)
- Tense Stem (16.4) – the most basic form of the verb, like the stem of a noun.
- Personal pronouns in the Nominative Case (16.15)
- These are optional. When included, it is often for emphasis.
- The pronoun lets you know the gender of the subject, which the personal ending by itself does not.
- See Exegetical Insight ἐγώ εἰμι (subject is implicit in Greek verb, when stated explicitly, is is often for emphasis)
- See Smyth on Present System of Verb
Master Verb Ending Chart (BBG p.352)
Voice | Primary Tenses |
Secondary Tenses |
|||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Active | |||||
λύ ω | (-) | ἔ λυ ο ν | (ν) | ||
λύ εις | (ς) | ἔ λυ ε ς | (ς) | ||
λύ ει | (ι) | ἔ λυ ε(ν) | (-) | ||
λύ ο μεν | (μεν) | ἐ λύ ο μεν | (μεν) | ||
λύ ε τε | (τε) | ἐ λύ ε τε | (τε) | ||
λύ ουσι(ν) | (νσι) | ἐ λυ ο ν | (ν) | ||
Middle & Passive |
|||||
λύ ο μαι | (μαι) | ἐ λυ ό μην | (μην) | ||
λύ ῃ | (σαι) | ἐ λύ ου | (σο) | ||
λύ ε ται | (ται) | ἐ λύ ε το | (το) | ||
λυ ό μεθα | (μεθα) | ἐ λυ ό μεθα | (μεθα) | ||
λύ ε σθε | (σθε) | ἐ λύ ε σθε | (σθε) | ||
λύ ο νται | (νται) | ἐ λύ ο ντο | (ντο) |
Master Indicative Verb Chart (BBG p.354)
Verb Tense | Augment/ Reduplication |
Tense Stem |
Tense Formative |
Connecting Vowel |
Personal Endings |
1st Person Singular |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Present Active | — | Present | — | ο/ε | Primary Active | λύω |
Present Middle/Passive | — | Present | — | ο/ε | Primary Middle/Passive | λύομαι |
Imperfect Active | ε | Present | — | ο/ε | Secondary Active | ἔλυον |
Imperfect Middle/Passive | ε | Present | — | ο/ε | Secondary Middle/Passive | ἐλυόμην |
Future Active | — | Future Active | σ | ο/ε | Primary Active | λύσω |
Liquid Future Active | — | Future Active | εσ | ο/ε | Primary Active | μενῶ |
Future Middle | — | Future Active | σ | ο/ε | Primary Middle/Passive | πορεύομαι |
Liquid Future Middle | — | Future Active | εσ | ο/ε | Primary Middle/Passive | μενοῦμαι |
1st Future Passive | — | Aorist Passive | θησ | ο/ε | Primary Middle/Passive | λυθήσομαι |
2nd Future Passive | — | Aorist Passive | ησ | ο/ε | Primary Middle/Passive | ἀποσταλήσομαι |
1st Aorist Active | ε | Aorist Active | σα | — | Secondary Active | ἔλυσα |
1st Aorist Middle | ε | Aorist Active | σα | — | Secondary Middle/Passive | ἐλυσάμην |
1st Aorist Passive | ε | Aorist Passive | θη | — | Secondary Active | ἐλύθην |
Liquid Aorist Active | ε | Aorist Active | α | — | Secondary Active | ἔμεινα |
2nd Aorist Active | ε | Aorist Active | — | ο/ε | Secondary Active | ἔλαβον |
2nd Aorist Middle | ε | Aorist Active | — | ο/ε | Secondary Middle/Passive | ἐγενόμην |
2nd Aorist Passive | ε | Aorist Passive | η | — | Secondary Active | ἐγράφην |
1st Perfect Active | λε | Perfect Active | κα | — | Primary Active | λέκυκα |
2nd Perfect Active | λε | Perfect Active | α | — | Primary Active | γέγονα |
Perfect Middle/Passive | λε | Perfect Passive | — | — | Primary Middle/Passive | λέκυμαι |
Review New Vocabulary
- For verbs, after the number NT occurrences, is listed the verb’s Present Tense Stem, preceded by *
- Verbs are also listed with their 6 principal parts
Exegesis – p.138
Assignments
- Continue your life habit of reading Greek aloud from the Greek New Testament
- Quiz next week on chapter 16
- All vocabulary
- Components of Present Active Indicative verb
- Aspects of the Present Tense
- Be able to write the full paradigm of the Present Active Indicative
- Use of personal pronouns with verbs
- Be able to parse verbs in the Present Indicative Active
- Study chapters 15 and 16, and complete workbook exercise 16
- Read chapter 17
- Lexical Aids: Review Part I pp.1-8 and know all words with NT occurrences > 500. Pay special attentive to the derivatives. Read Appendix I, and be able to articulate and give examples of “Grimm’s Law”
- Start taking your Greek NT to church with you, and read along as much as you can.
- Memory passage: Matthew 5.3
Μακάριοι οἱ πτωχοὶ τῷ πνεύματι, ὅτι αὐτῶν ἐστιν ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν. (Listen)
The Lord’s Prayer (Listen)
Πάτερ ἡμῶν ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς·
ἁγιασθήτω τὸ ὄνομά σου· ἐλθέτω ἡ βασιλεία σου· γενηθήτω τὸ θέλημά σου, ὡς ἐν οὐρανῷ καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς·
τὸν ἄρτον ἡμῶν τὸν ἐπιούσιον δὸς ἡμῖν σήμερον· καὶ ἄφες ἡμῖν τὰ ὀφειλήματα ἡμῶν, ὡς καὶ ἡμεῖς ἀφήκαμεν τοῖς ὀφειλέταις ἡμῶν·
καὶ μὴ εἰσενέγκῃς ἡμᾶς εἰς πειρασμόν, ἀλλὰ ῥῦσαι ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ.
ὅτι σοῦ ἐστιν ἡ βασιλεία καὶ ἡ δύναμις καὶ ἡ δόξα εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας. ἀμήν.