4.2 PERSON indicates the subject of the verb.
- 1st person = I, we
- 2nd person = you, you all
- 3rd person = he/she/it, they, or anyone/anything else
4.3 NUMBER indicates whether the subject (“person”) is singular or plural.
- Singular: I, you, he/she/it, or any single subject
- Plural: we, you all, they, or any plural subject
The Greek SINGULAR and PLURAL operate much as they do in English. Greek, however, also has a DUAL number, which indicates that there are precisely two subjects. This grammatical number is rarely used by most authors, however. Here we concentrate on the much more common singular and plural. The dual number is discussed as it is encountered in your readings.
4.4 TENSE indicates when the action happens. English uses a combination of verb changes and/or additional words to indicate six main tenses:
- Present: run, stop
- Past: ran, stopped
- Future: will run, will stop
- Present Perfect: have (just) run, have (just) stopped
- Past Perfect (or Pluperfect): had run, had stopped
- Future Perfect: will have run, will have stopped
As we will see, Greek tenses are similar, with a few important differences.
4.5 MOOD refers to the “mode” of the verb. Most often, the mood of the verb indicates whether the action is real or hypothetical in some way. English uses a combination of verb changes and/or additional words to indicate four moods.
- The INDICATIVE mood is most common, and expresses facts:
- she runs, he stops
- The IMPERATIVE mood gives commands:
- run! stop!
- The SUBJUNCTIVE mood expresses unreal or hypothetical actions, such as wishes, conditions, and possibilities:
- she might run, if he could stop…
- The INFINITIVE mood refers to action without a person or number. In practice, it functions much like a verbal noun. It is formed in English by adding the word to to the verb form:
- to run, to stop
4.6 VOICE indicates the relationship between the action of the verb and its subject. English uses a combination of verb changes and/or additional words to indicate two possible voices.
- The ACTIVE voice indicates that the subject of the verb is carrying out the action:
- She (subject) stopped the car.
- All (subject) love music.
- The PASSIVE voice indicates that the subject receives the consequences of the action:
- The car (subject) was stopped by her.
- Music (subject) is loved by all.
The Greek ACTIVE and PASSIVE voices operate much as they do in English. Greek also has a MIDDLE voice, which often indicates that the subject is both the agent and recipient of the action. We discuss the middle voice in more detail in later chapters.
4.7 Parsing
To PARSE a Greek verb means to identify these five qualities – Person, Number, Tense, Mood, Voice – for any given verb form. For example, a specific verb form could be:
- Third person
- Singular
- Present
- Indicative
- Active
Once you know these five items and the verb’s meaning, you have identified the verb completely and understand what it means.