Present Tense
Table of contents
The First Principal Part
We have spent a lot of time until now with the third and sixth principal parts in learning about the aorist tense, the tense of instantaneous or completed actions in the past, in all voices. We will move now to the other principal part that you’ve been asked to memorize for new verbs, the first principal part, which we will use to build the forms of the present tense.
Present Tense
The present tense, as discussed in the verb overview, indicates an action that is occurring right now. While the translation of the aorist is pretty narrowly defined (as the simple past tense of a verb, often its “-ed” form), there are a few different ways in which we can translate the present tense. Here are a few examples:
- “They order” (simple present)
- “They are ordering” (progressive present)
- “They do order” (emphatic present)
These are all present tense versions of the same verb, “to order”, in the 3rd person plural; each version refers to an action that is happening now. The variations simply cover different types of action:
- the simple present, like the aorist, implies an instantaneous action;
- the progressive present indicates an action that is in the process of happening;
- and the emphatic present, as the name implies, emphasizes an action and is also used in questions (e.g., “do they order?”).
Context will often help guide you towards one of these translations more strongly than the others.
Like the aorist, the present tense can be expressed in any of the three voices. For example:
- active: “They order”
- middle: “They order (for themselves)”
- passive: “They are (being) ordered”
Unlike the aorist, however, all three voices are built on one principal part, the first. Also unlike the aorist, we will have one set of forms for the active voice and one set of forms for the middle and passive voices, so we will need context to help us determine whether a form is middle or passive.
Present Indicative (-ω and -μι)
Recall from the verb overview that the ending of the first principal part indicates to what conjugation the verb belongs: -ω or -μι. The distinction between -ω and -μι verbs is similar to that between first and second aorists: the grouping determines what sets of endings we can use to conjugate the verb, but it doesn’t affect the verb’s core aspects. A 3rd singular present active indicative -ω verb is the same as a 3rd singular present active indicative -μι verb in terms of when the verb happens, who performs it, etc.; all that differs is the ending that we use to indicate those verbal aspects.
-ω verbs are also considered thematic verbs, so called because the personal endings are a combination of a thematic/theme vowel (-ο- before μ or ν, -ε- elsewhere) and a true personal ending that indicates person and number. In some endings of this type, it can be difficult to extricate the theme vowel from the true personal ending, but this distinction is important when we compare thematic verbs against -μι verbs, which are athematic, meaning that there is no -o- or -ε- between the verb stem and the personal ending.
Present Active
As with the aorist, the conjugation of the present is a matter of combining a verb stem with a set of personal endings. In this case, our stem comes from the first principal part, and there is a new set of personal endings that you must memorize.
Here are the steps to conjugate a verb in the present active.
- Get the verb’s present stem by taking -ω or -μι off the first principal part.
- Apply the appropriate personal ending, depending on whether the verb is -ω or -μι.
- Apply a recessive accent based on the rules laid out in the unit on accents.
Present Active Endings (-ω)
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | -ω | -ομεν |
| 2nd | -εις | -ετε |
| 3rd | -ει | -ουσι(ν) |
Present Active Endings (-μι)
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | -μι | -μεν |
| 2nd | -ς | -τε |
| 3rd | -σι(ν) | -ασι(ν) |
Application
Let’s use κελεύω and δείκνυμι as our sample verbs for the present active.
- Our respective stems are κελευ- and δεικνυ-.
- When we want to conjugate these verbs in the 3rd person singular and plural, we must keep in mind to which conjugation each verb belongs.
- κελεύω is an -ω verb; thus, we’ll attach the endings -ει and -ουσι(ν) for the present active.
- δείκνυμι is a -μι verb; thus, we’ll attach the endings -σι(ν) and -ασι(ν) for the present active.
- The 3rd singular of κελεύω will be accented on the penult, since the ending -ει draws the accent forward. The other three forms will be accented on the antepenult, due to their short ultimas.
Here are our resulting forms:
| Verb | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| κελεύω | κελεύει | κελεύουσι(ν) |
| δείκνυμι | δείκνυσι(ν) | δεικνύασι(ν) |
Translation
The verbal aspects that we took into consideration when learning about the aorist also apply here; simply swap in present tense for aorist tense. So, for example, κελεύει can mean “she orders”, while δείκνυσιν can mean “he shows.”
Present Middle/Passive
As mentioned above, we use the first principal part to form the middle and passive voices of the present tense as well. Unlike the aorist, the present uses the same endings for both the middle and the passive, so you will need to use the rest of the sentence and context clues to determine which voice of the verb you’re dealing with. For example, the presence of an accusative direct object with a middle/passive verb probably indicates that it’s middle, since a passive verb cannot take an accusative direct object.
Here are the steps to conjugate a verb in the present middle/passive.
- Get the verb’s present stem by taking -ω or -μι off the first principal part.
- Apply the appropriate personal ending, depending on whether the verb is -ω or -μι.
- Apply a recessive accent based on the rules laid out in the unit on accents.
Hopefully these steps sound familiar by this point. The only difference are the endings used in step 2:
Present Middle/Passive Endings (-ω)
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | -ομαι | -όμεθα |
| 2nd | -ῃ | -εσθε |
| 3rd | -εται | -ονται |
Present Middle/Passive Endings (-μι)
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | -μαι | -μεθα |
| 2nd | -σαι | -σθε |
| 3rd | -ται | -νται |
It is here that we can see the difference between thematic/-ω and athematic/-μι verbs most clearly. Note how the middle/passive endings for -ω verbs and -μι verbs look mostly similar, but the -ω verb endings begin with a thematic vowel (-ο- before μ or ν, and -ε- elsewhere).
(This following paragraph is just for your information; no need to commit this to memory, but this explanation may help put other things in context later down the line:)
The ending that seems like the odd duck out, the 2nd person singular ending for -ω verbs (-ῃ), actually conforms to this pattern of thematic vowel plus personal ending. The true 2nd singular middle/passive ending is -σαι, and the addition of a thematic vowel results in -εσαι. The σ between the ε and αι is known as an intervocalic sigma (so called because it’s a sigma that appears between two vowel sounds), and the force of the vowels around it often causes it to disappear, leaving us with the ending -εαι. The two separate vowel sounds then contract into one: the ε and the α of the diphthong αι combine into η, and the leftover iota becomes a subscript: -ῃ. A similar contraction occurs with the 2nd person singular ending for the second aorist (-ου; the original ending was -εσο, but intervocalic sigma drops out and ε and ο contract to form -ου).
Application
Let’s use the same verbs, κελεύω and δείκνυμι, as our examples, this time for the present middle/passive.
- Our respective stems are still κελευ- and δεικνυ-.
- When we want to conjugate these verbs in the 3rd person singular and plural middle/passive, we must keep in mind to which conjugation each verb belongs.
- κελεύω is an -ω verb; thus, we’ll attach the endings -εται and -ονται for the present middle/passive.
- δείκνυμι is a -μι verb; thus, we’ll attach the endings -ται and -νται for the present middle/passive.
- All four forms will be accented on the antepenult, due to their short ultimas (αι is a diphthong, but recall from the alphabet unit that it is short for the purposes of accentuation).
| Verb | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| κελεύω | κελεύεται | κελεύονται |
| δείκνυμι | δείκνυται | δείκνυνται |
Again, hopefully this three-step pattern is becoming second nature by this point. To conjugate a verb, identify your stem; add the appropriate personal ending for the person, number, and voice that you want; and apply a recessive accent.
Translation
As mentioned above, present middle forms are exactly identical to present passive forms because both voices use the same endings. Thus, you must make a decision about how to translate such a form.
κελεύεται can be either middle or passive.
- If it’s middle, you can translate it as, for example, “she orders (for herself).”
- If it’s passive, however, you must make that verbal voice clear in your translation: “she is (being) ordered.”
The same goes for a form like δείκνυνται:
- If it’s middle, a sample translation is “they show (for themselves).”
- If it’s passive, however: “they are (being) shown.”
A Note about Deponents
Recall from the unit on the aorist passive that a deponent verb is a verb that is middle or passive in form but active in meaning. This distinction applies to any of the tenses, including the present tense. A deponent present tense is indicated by a first principal part that ends in -ομαι (for -ω verbs) or -μαι (without the thematic vowel, for -μι verbs).
Of the verbs that you know so far, two are deponent in the first principal part: γίγνομαι (“to happen, to become”) and ἔρχομαι (“to come, to go”). Both of these forms have the theme vowel ο before the -μαι, so we classify these verbs as belonging to the -ω conjugation.
The conjugation of these verbs on their first principal parts, then, will use only middle/passive endings (i.e., γίγνεται, γίγνονται; ἔρχεται, ἔρχονται) but be translated actively (e.g., “it happens”, “they come”).