a question about blend

Greek Learning Greek
1

Here the word “ple/ousi” come from the book READING GREEK,in row 10 page 9.

Why it isn’t necessary to bend the termination like plwsi,according to the principle–e+ou=w

anybody can help? remercie par avance

2

Hi there medea. When a verb that ends in -εω is monosyllabic (the verb stem) the contaction happens only if after the epsilon of the stem there’s anothe repsilon or an epsilon iota (ε, ει) (πνέω, δέω, χέω being some other verbs I can think of right now)

πλέω, πλεῖς, πλέομεν, πλεῖτε, πλέουσι etc

3

Basically, verbs in -έω whose stem has only one syllable (like πλε- in this case) only contract when the ending begins with ε or ει. So you have πλεῖ but πλέομεν, and thus you get πλέουσι.

Also, as far as I know, ε + ου = ου, e.g. φιλοῦσι.

4

A note on modus post:

Yes, it is e+ou = ou but the aforementioned verbs don’t contract when the verb ending is eta. Only with epsilon and epsilon iota

5

Thanks for the correction, Irene – I’ll fix my post.

6

donc, this is only for e and ei? thanx a lot:))