18.5 Another class of ATTIC FUTURES are verbs whose stems end in –ιζ. Since –ζ is a dental, we should anticipate that the addition of the future tense marker –σ– would produce a future tense stem ending in –ίσω. For example, the future of νομίζω, “think, believe” would be νομίσω.
In practice, however, Classical Greek regularly dropped the –σ-, and replaced it with an –ε-, resulting initially in a form like νομιέω. As you can by now imagine, the –έω would then contract. Note the following examples:
- ἐλπίζω, ἐλπιῶ, hope for
- κομίζω, κομιῶ, provide for
- νομίζω, νομιῶ, think, believe