Epsilon Contracts
Table of contents
Contract Verbs
Most of the verbs that you have encountered so far have a first principal part whose stem ends in a consonant or υ. Some quick examples:
- ἄγω > ἀγ-
- κελεύω > κελευ-
- δείκνυμι > δεικνυ-
- ἔρχομαι > ἐρχ-
However, when the stem of a thematic verb’s first principal part ends in the letters ε, α, or ο, as in the verbs ἀδικέω or ποιέω, that end of the stem will contract with the first vowel/diphthong of whatever personal ending gets added to the stem. For that reason, such verbs are called contract verbs. The most common type are epsilon-contracts, so called because the letter in question that precedes the -ω or -ομαι ending is ε.
Note that these contractions are only a concern for forms built on the first principal part, i.e., the present tense. This means that you do not need to worry about contractions in the aorist tense (i.e., forms built on the 3rd or 6th principal parts).
Epsilon Contractions
This list indicates what results from the contraction of a verb stem’s -ε- with the various vowel/diphthong possibilities in present and imperfect personal endings. The combinations in bold are the ones that are directly applicable to the endings that you should have memorized by this point (3rd singular and plural in all voices of the present); the coded-out combinations are ones that may apply to endings that you will learn later on.
- ε + ει = ει
- ε + ου = ου
- ε + ε = ει
- ε + ο = ου
ε + ᾱ = ηε + α = ηε + η = ηε + αι = ῃε + ῃ = ῃε + οι = οιε + ω = ωε + ῳ = ῳ
Conjugation and Accentuation
The contraction of the stem’s epsilon with the following vowel simply adds an extra step into the process of conjugating in the present tense:
- find the stem (and add an augment if needed),
- attach the appropriate personal ending,
- replace the clashing vowels with their resulting contraction,
- and apply a recessive accent.
The accentuation step will also have some specific rules, but first, let’s take the verb ποιέω as an example and see how the contractions work when we conjugate it in the present tense (and deal with the accentuation when we get there).
Present Tense
As usual, we begin by finding the stem from the first principal part; when we take -ω off the verb, we are left with ποιε-. This -ε- at the end of the stem classifies ποιέω as a contract verb, so we must be sure to apply that step of contracting the ε with the personal ending’s vowel/diphthong as we go.
In the present tense, we know four endings that we can attach to this stem to conjugate the verb across all three voices in the 3rd person singular and plural:
| Person/Number | Active | Middle/Passive |
|---|---|---|
| 3rd sg. | -ει | -εται |
| 3rd pl. | -ουσι(ν) | -ονται |
The following chart shows the verb stem and the appropriate personal endings, with the vowels/diphthongs that we need to contract in bold (and an accent applied to the verb as if the vowels will remain uncontracted):
| Person/Number | Active | Middle/Passive |
|---|---|---|
| 3rd sg. | ποιέ + ει | ποιέ + εται |
| 3rd pl. | ποιέ + ουσι(ν) | ποιέ + ονται |
In terms of accentuation, we need to look at the two vowels to be contracted and the placement of the accent in the unaccented form.
- If the accent is on the stem vowel, it becomes a circumflex over the contraction.
- If the accent is on the first vowel of the ending, it remains an acute over the contraction.
- If the accent falls on neither vowel (e.g., it falls on an antepenult), it remains whatever it is.
So, given the chart above, our forms contract into the following:
| Person/Number | Active | Middle/Passive |
|---|---|---|
| 3rd sg. | ποιεῖ | ποιεῖται |
| 3rd pl. | ποιοῦσι(ν) | ποιοῦνται |