4.8 The Present Indicative Active
Now that you have learned the types of information that a Greek verb form conveys about an action, let us turn to how a Greek verb is inflected to convey this information.
English verbs often make additions or use additional words to convey Person, Number, Tense, Mood, and Voice. Consider the verbs in the following sentences:
Now imagine verbs like this!
These imaginary English verbs work basically the way verbs work in Greek. Greek verbs for the most part communicate person, number, tense, mood, and voice by adding parts to the verb, rather than by using additional words. Building verbs this way can seem strange at first, but to a Greek, the number of words English needs to express what Greek can do in one word would seem equally strange.
4.9 To begin building a Greek verb, start with the VERB STEM (S 191, G 248). The stem is the part of the word that tells you what action the verb describes:
- δεικ– = show
All the verbs in this lesson are in the PRESENT TENSE. Sometimes in Greek, a marker is added to the stem that says the verb is in the present tense. In the case of the verb stem δεικ-, adding a –ν– to the verb stem marks a verb as in the present tense (S 523-525, G 358-360). It will be easier to pronounce this verb by adding an upsilon: –νυ–.
So now we have a TENSE STEM, specifically a PRESENT TENSE STEM, that looks and sounds like this:
- δεικνυ– = show
The most common mood of Greek verbs is the INDICATIVE, indicating that the action of the verb is real. All the verbs in this lesson are in the ACTIVE voice, so the following verb forms are:
- Present tense
- Indicative mood
- Active voice
4.10 To indicate person and number, the verb needs to add PERSONAL ENDINGS, which are as follows:
Note: (ν) indicates that this ending has a MOVABLE NU.
4.11 Putting it all together, the Present Indicative Active of δείκνυμι is as follows (S 418, G 360):
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Notice that since the very form of δείκνυμι informs us that the person and number is first person singular, Greek does not need the personal pronoun ἐγώ, “I.” In general, if Greek does use the personal pronoun, it is for stress: ἐγὼ δείκνυμι “I show.” The same principle applies to verbs with second person endings. The subject of third person verb forms is usually clear from the context of the sentence.