verba contracta

[mjs]

Hello everyone,
I am a beginner student of the κοινή Greek and I am dealing with contracted verbs now. A question, which might sound silly, is bothering me: are both forms, contracted and non-contracted, used equivalently or is the contracted form the only one actually used? E.g., can one say both ποιέω and ποιῶ or only ποιῶ?
Thanks.

[annis]

or is the contracted form the only one actually used? E.g., can one say both ποιέω and ποιῶ or only ποιῶ?

In Koine only the contracted form is used, though most dictionaries will cite them uncontracted because the usual lemma form, the present first person singular, doesn't make it clear what the stem vowel is with the contraction.

If you eventually read Herodotus or Homer you'll find uncontracted -έω verbs, as well as some oddball behavior from -άω and -όω verbs.

[mjs]

Thanks a lot! Now I'll know how to handle them.

[GreekGeek2]

But isn't it πλá¼￾ω and not πλὢ?

[annis]

But isn't it πλá¼￾ω and not πλὢ?

That's true — monosyllabic stems follow their own rules. Smyth §394-398 has the full collection of contract verbs to worry about.

[Apollimagine]

As far as I know, πλá¼￾ω, like καλέω, originally had a digamma between epsilon and omega, therefore there is no contraction.