Verb: Present tense

GrammarVerb – Present tense (3s)

The term person has to do with the identity of the subject, whether it is the speaker (1st person), addressee (2nd person), or someone else (3rd person). Singular (abbreviated sg or s) gives the number of participants in the subject, so singular just says that there is one person for the subject. Present tense describes the meaning of the verbal form as the event occurring at the time of speaking. Finally, verbs are events or states that describe what the subject is or does. While events are things that happen in the world, states are static situations that simply hold. The forms of verbs will normally be abbreviated, e.g. 1s is 1st person singular and 2p is 2nd person plural.

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GrammarVerb – Present (3p)

The plural (abbreviated p or pl) normally says that there is more than one of something. Greek marks plurality on nouns and pronouns, but verbs also normally take on a different form if their subject is plural.

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MorphologyVerb – Present (3s)

• The -ει ending marks the 3s in the present tense, as in (ὁ δοῦλος) κράζ-ει.

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MorphologyVerb – Present 1s, 2s

• The pronouns ἐγώ ‘I’ and σύ ‘you’ are used with the 1st and 2nd singular forms respectively (see 2.2.4.1 and 2.3.4.1).
• The final ω marks 1s (e.g. ἐγὼ κράζω).
• The σ marks 2s (e.g. σὺ κράζεις).

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MorphologyVerb – Present 3p

• The ending for the present 3p is -ουσι(ν) as in κράζ-ουσιν ‘they are shouting’
• (ν) is used to notate a movable ν

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MorphologyVerb – Present 1p, 2p

• The 1p form κράζομεν ‘we are shouting’ has an o-class vowel like the 1s form
• The 2p form κράζετε ‘y’all are shouting’ has an e-class vowel like the 2s form

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SemanticsVerb – Present tense (1 – Present progressive; 2 – Simple present)

Greek has a number of verbal forms, and we will present their forms and uses gradually. Summaries of each of the forms and all their uses can be found in Appendix 1. To begin our discussion of the Greek present tense, it can be equivalent to either the simple present (e.g. Rhoda plays soccer) or the present progressive (e.g. Rhoda is playing soccer). The former is a state or a habit that Rhoda has, and the latter is an action that Rhoda is currently doing. Some languages, like English, distinguish between different verbs in the present like this, but other languages, like Greek, do not. What the form means in Greek will depend on the context and the specific verb used, but some verbs like κράζει can have either interpretation:

• (1) Present progressive use of Greek present tense
• Dismiss her, because she κράζει [is shouting] after us (Matt 15:23)
• (2) Simple present use of Greek present tense

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SemanticsVerb – Present Tense (1 – Present Progressive cont.)

When we describe an event as “in progress” as we did in 1.4.4.2, it means that the event has not finished yet relative to whatever time we are talking about. Essentially, this means that the present tense relates two time intervals. By way of illustration, suppose Joseph traveled from Jerusalem to Bethlehem on one Passover, and he was traveling from 3:00–5:00. If we ask the question What is Joseph doing now at 4:20, one could respond He is traveling to Bethlehem meaning that the event of him traveling is still taking place at the time that we are discussing. This basic temporal relationship holds for both the present progressive use of the present and the simple present use (see 1.4.4.2).

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SemanticsVerb semantics

In 2.1.4.2, we introduced the idea that the present tense refers to a time period that is shorter than the time period of the event. If Joseph travels from Bethlehem to Jerusalem from 3:00–5:00, we can use the present tense to talk about what he is doing at 4:20. We also mentioned that this same temporal relationship holds for states as well. In light of this, two concepts are introduced here: eventuality and aspect. The term eventuality is used in linguistics as a cover term for both events and states. Aspect is the relationship between the time being discussed and the time of the eventuality. In other words, it is a relationship between two time intervals or points, which we will call “spans”. One of these spans is called the

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PhonologyAccent Placement

Verbs and nouns have different systems for accenting. There is no specific rule on which syllable a noun may be accented. Sometimes the accent will fall at the beginning of the word (e.g. ἄνθρωπος), and other times it will be at the end of the word (e.g. ἀδελφή). You must memorize where the accent is for each noun. Verbs, on the other hand, are all accented according to specific rules (they are introduced piecemeal in the lessons and summarized in Phonology A). For now, all verbs will be accented on the second to last vowel of the word, e.g. κρά ζει.

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PhonologyCircumflex Accent

The third and final Greek accent is the circumflex. This accent looks like a squiggly line and would have originally been pronounced longer, e.g. δοῦλος. Like the grave, the circumflex is also restricted in the syllable it can fall on – it is only found in the second to last or last syllable.

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PhonologyMovable ν

A movable ν is a ν that appears at the end of a word in some phonological environments. For example, they are shouting in Greek may appear either as κράζουσιν or κράζουσι. The general rule is that ν was added when the following letter was a vowel, e.g. κράζουσιν <u>ἀδελφῇ. However, in Koine Greek, the ν was much more common and was often added even before consonants.</u>

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