I’ve been teaching myself Greek for only 5 months and enjoying it tremendously. However, as the passages I’m now translating are beginning to get more difficult, I’m increasingly frustrated by the high incidence of “irregularity” in Greek verbs (Latin verbs, by comparison are delightfully regular).
I know about how initial vowels must be lengthened in aorist/imp tenses. But this is further complicated by changes necessary with some consonants because of the need to add “s” for aorist stem. The result: I can spend time searching through my dictionary (the Abridged Lidell & Scott - an otherwise wonderful resource) and STILL not find the verb.
Even more so, if there is a middle mood form of the same verb, which I didn’t know about. Hence, lots of time wasted and a slight sensation of helplessness. Some verbs seem to have several alternate forms, which begin to make my poor ol’ brain quite shaken.
I know about the “Hopper” website, where I can type in the verb as found in the passage I’m translating and it will obligingly provide the stem/infinitive. However, apart from needing to be online to do so; I’m wary of lapsing into this lazy habit for fear I’ll never learn the paradigms themselves.
I’d be most grateful if anyone could offer suggestions about strategies to get on top of this problem..
hi, yes i agree that the stems are one of the hardest parts of the verb to learn, especially because books tend to start teaching the present tense first where the present stem has often already undergone heavy phonetic modification from the original root: i find the present tense one of the hardest (that probably sounds strange).
how did you learn the 3rd declension (i.e. of nouns)? whatever strategy worked for you there (e.g. learning how phonetic changes in the dat. pl. work), may also be the best strategy for you to learn how phonetic changes in the verb stem work.
i taught myself classics as well and so you might want to know how another self-learner tried to do it: in my answers to smith’s initia graeca on the 3rd declension, i wrote notes like this: ἐλέφᾱσῐ = *ἐλέφαντσῐ. “ντ are dropped before ς, and ᾰ is lengthened into ᾱ, ο into ου” p.22. λέουσῐν = *λέοντσιν. “ντ are dropped before ς, and ᾰ is lengthened into ᾱ, ο into ου” p.22.
this method worked for me, so when studying verbs i tried to use the same strategy (i.e. writing out the forms starting from the root and adding the other elements separated by hyphens, before any phonetic modification), although (i) this was far harder for verbs than for nouns and (ii) there are other irregularities (not just resulting from phonetic modification when an element is joined to another element) which you have to memorise anyway. smith’s initia graeca (the book i used) has lots of the info on phonetic modification for verbs, however i also found other useful books, e.g. this one online which i used to read: http://books.google.com/books?id=e4jmJWLqjOEC
I agree that Greek verbs are terribly complex.I have also spent countless hours searching in a dictionary hunting for a given verb. As your experience and vocabulary increase, it becomes somewhat faster, if not easier. Read as much Greek as you can, use all the tools at your disposal, dictionaries, Perseus, and Textkit. There are also some dictionaries specialized for one author, which help; I am thinking of Powell’s Lexicon to Herodotus for example.
I agree with Chad that there’s something slightly perverse about classing verbs by the present tense forms. For example, by the standards of the rest of Classical Greek -μι verbs are especially strange only in the present and imperfect.
In addition to the tools at Perseus, you can get the book All the Greek Verbs by N. Marinone, which is laid out just to help you find odd-ball forms. The secret to using this book, as well as online parsing tools, is to view it as a starting point, not the end. You can hardly be blamed if you have to look up ἀπολώλασι if you’ve never seen the verb ἀπ-όλλυμι before. Once you do look it up, however, you should spend some time either with your grammar’s verb list or, better yet, with that and a good dictionary, to familiarize yourself with the many guises in which it appears.
Combine quality time with your dictionary and as much reading as you can manage (as jk0592 suggests) and you’ll retain the oddballs in memory better, and you’ll have more material from which to discover patterns on your own.
Smyth’s A Greek Grammar ως φιλος σου παντοτε εστω. You can download it from Texkit.
First, you need to see that most often the change is recognizeable and predictable.
After making the list of predictable and unpredictable things below, the learning curve seems pretty steep. What we need is an online morphology trainer so the below expected changes could be internalized. I suppose such tools as Mastronardes Parsers and the Eton Greek Project help some. Smyth’s book is intimidating, but it is a school book that has been vetted for 100 years. It has a great index and things are findable. Spend some time just learning where things are in the book. Use it to look up paradigm charts. Eventually you will feel a little more comfortable and be able to did in deeper when you need to know an answer.
Best Practices:
1 When you learn a verb, always ask yourself “what is the aorist stem” - then write it down in pencil so it scratches and makes noise!(a squeaky chalkboard would work great). Modern lexicographers wish the aorist was used as the lemma in lexicons.
2 When you learn a verb, always learn the simplex (without the prepοsition; some are not obvious εγκαθίζω = εν + καθίζω ) even though the simplex may never occur by itself.
3 Ask yourself every time why the change between the aorist and present. Get the explanation, most times it is predictable.
4 Most verb books have a chart of frequent verbs in the back. Go through the list and make yourself guess the aorist, present and perfect and future. Then go back and check. I think this is a great way of checking patterns. Better yet, write them down. The Koine NT Grammar by Moulton, vol 2, has a good format in their section of verbs. Α similar book on the NT like Smyth’s morphology part is The Morphology of Biblical Greek. It is Koine, but gives word lists and notes about what is weird. The following books can help in your phonological conditioning:
Mounce Morphology of Biblical Greek http://www.amazon.com/Morphology-Biblical-Greek-William-Mounce/dp/0310226368/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255632370&sr=8-1
Moulton Grammar of New Testament Greek Vol 2 Accidence and Word Formationhttp://www.archive.org/details/grammarofnewtest02mouluoft see §95 pp. 224ff
Carl Conrad Compendium on Ancient Greek Phonology http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/Docs/CompPhon.pdf
James Skerrett Baird: A Catalouge of Greek Verbs Irregular and Defective: http://books.google.com/books?id=ldB8PwAACAAJ&dq=catalogue+of+greek+verbs
Predictable Things
1 Know how the consonant sigma combines with: stops, liquids Smyth §97ff. List of liquid verbs §620; List of stop verbs §623
2 Know how nasals combine: ν μ Smyth §§85-96
3 How consonants combine with consonants: Smyth §82ff
4 Be aware of Grimms law of deaspiration. Νο θιθ χιχ φιφ is allowed. The 1st letter changes: τιθ, κιθ, πιθ e.g. τέθηκα.
5 Know the temporal augments: they are predictable Smyth §435
6 Know the contractions: they are predictable. α + ε = ᾱ, ε + α = η Τhose two are the only one where order matters. Smyth §59 (there are simpler charts)
7 Be able to identify reduplication: ιοτα in the present; ε in the perfect: γιγνώσκω, πίπτω; δίδωμι; πιπρασκω; πεπωκα, δεδωκα. The reduplication is lost in other tenses Smyth §439
8 Be able to identify which endings you only see in the present: -ίσκω; αίνω, -ανω, λλω, σσω, νυμι. These endings drop or change in all other tenses (except imperfect).Smyth 2nd - 5th classes Smyth §505ff.
9 Know the 3 Kappa Aorist verbs: εδωκα, εθηκα, αφ-ηκα (>ιημι); perfects δεδωκα, τεθηκα (αφ-εικα) §755
10 Know μι verbs usually change their vowel in the singular to plural: διδωμι διδομεν ; τιθημι τιθομεν
11 Recognize insertions of nasals in stems: λαμβανω λαβειν; μανθανω μαθειν.
12 Recognize some basic roots: δω ~ δο ; θη ~ θε; στη ~ στα; εχ ~ σχ (εχω…εσχον); αρ ~ ελ (different stem αιρω ~ ελον); παθ; πειθ; πτ ~ πετ
13 Use the accents to help: Verb accent is almost always predictable.
14 Some verb accent differences are:
λέγειν; λιπεῖν (2nd aor inf)
ακόλουθει ακολούθει (pres. 3s ind. versus pres 2s imperative of ε contracts;
καταλῦσαι Omega verbs in 1st aor. infinitve is perispomenon
Things you need to be aware of but cannot predict:
1 When a verb will have a second aorist, 1st aorist, or both! or an athematic aorist (stem ends in a long vowel) §679ff
2 Aublaut (Vowel Changes) in a stem: πειθω, πεποικα; γνω γνο γν γιγνωσκω, Learn to expect vowel change; you are only reading and not doing composition. While you may peg some words wrong, the consonants and strong vowels can give the word away. There are not that many homonyms and look alikes.
3 Whan an imperative takes θι (μι + 2nd aorist) or ε· δος φαθι γνωθι
4 Middle Presents used as future τρεχω fut. δραμουμαι (Smyth has a list §805ff)
5 Aorist passives used as actives (see Smyth §812ff)
6 Unpredictable changes - but often a stem vowel will flag a word like ιημι ι-ημι. The iota is usually present. ἦμαι - the η is always present. κειμαι the κει is almost always present. οιδα the ι is always present inline or as a subscript (οι ι ει ῃ )
7 Changes in irregular mi verbs: ιημι is probably the trickiest verb. Be aware of εἰμί (stem εσ-) to be and εἶμι (stem ι ιε (ῃ)) to go. Again the stem vowel will help flag this word. Smyth has a great section on this.
8 Different grammars list different words for the aorist under the present of a word: e.g. λέγω, ἐρῶ, εἶπον, εἴρηκα. Understand that these words are from different stems and are unrelated other than having a similar meaning in different tense.
I think I’m a bit conservative when it comes to grammar
First we have the regular changes. That is the changes that occur because of how the ancient Greek language works.
These, to my mind, are easy. Once you know learn the sound changes’ rules,
(by the way the
π β φ
κ γ χ
τ δ θ
grid is quite useful I found)
you have three options:
a) learn to decline a regular verb whose stem ends in a vowel: Use the rules you’ve learnt for any verb ending in consonant. Soon you’ll find out you don’t have to actually do it.
b) learn to decline a regular verb from each category. I would advise you against this method since it involves a great deal of practically useless memorization
c) learn the endings, apply them to the stem and make the necessary changes. As with method a) you’ll soon find you don’t need to actually do it.
I actually learned my verbs using a combination of a and c but then I utilized modern Greek too where possible so it may not work for you.
As for irregular verbs, well, as others said before me, there are countless lists of the most common irregular verbs. Once you know the new stem, you just have to apply the endings as usual.
I think we are all saying the same thing basically if you think about it. Anyway, knowing the endings and the overall rules of grammar for verbs help a lot when “deconstructing” a form in search for the dictionary entry; that is, when it is not an irregular verb Or one of the -μι verbs I guess (but these are, while frequent, very, very specific).
In a nutshell, there’s no easy way to go about it. Ancient Greek is definitely more difficult than Latin when it comes to grammar I’m afraid.
I cut my teeth on Trenchard’s NT vocab guide, which includes huge tables of irregular verbs in all tenses. My prof required us to memorize common forms.
I found William Mounce’s Morphology of Biblical Greek very helpful in making Greek verbs seem less irregular. Everything (and more) in Mounce is in Smyth, but Mounce is more user friendly and easier to get through. Learning Homer also makes things less frustrating as he often had the more regular (i.e. less contracted forms.) But only tons of reading helps. Then the big problem becomes vocab. But stick with it. Greek gets easier and is worth all the effort
Or one of the -μι verbs I guess (but these are, while frequent, very, very specific).