Koine Greek: Verbs

Verbs in Koine Greek
RELATED TOPICS	* Lessons Indicative Mood and Present, Imperfect, Future and Aorist Tenses Present Imperfect Future Aorist Non-Indicative Moods Subjunctive Mood Infinitive Mood Imperative Mood Optative Mood Other Tenses Perfect Tense Pluperfect Tense Special Rules Liquid Verbs Verbs - Augment Contract Verbs Purpose Conditions Periphrasis Special Case Verbs To be - Ειμι (I am) To know - οιδα (I know) Participles
SERMONS, ESSAYS AND OPINIONS
CONTENTS

Lesson

A verb is a "doing word" like Γραφω, which means "I am writing".

In Koine Greek there are numerous aspects to the verb that don't exist in English, and it takes a significant amount of time to become familiar with all the uses of the verbs.

Grammatical components of a verb in Greek

The root or stem of a verb can be modified to give it different meanings. A verb has the following components

• Person
  • First Person (I or we)
  • Second Person (You)
  • Third Person (He / she / it or they)
• Number
  • Singular
  • Plural
• Tense
• Voice
  • Active
  • Middle
  • Passive
• Mood
  • Indicative - simple statement
  • Imperative - a command
  • Subjunctive - possible or potential

For example, the verb Γραφω means "I am writing" or "I write"

• First person - the subject is the person who says the word
• Singular - the subject refers to one person, not a group
• Present - the verb describe an action that is occurring or ongoing, i.e. it has a continuous action; usually it implies (but not always) the action is occurring in the present time
• Active - the subject is doing the verb
• Indicative

Tense of a verb

The tense of a verb has two component

• Time
• Aspect

Time may be either past, present or future, and tends to be the most important part of a verb's tense in English

Aspect refers to the how the action unfolds, and tends to be the most important part of a verb in Koine Greek. Aspect may be either

• Undefined
• Continuous
• Resultative

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