Lesson 6.1 · Mood
The indicative
Plain statements and questions of fact.
One box in the verb is still empty. It says how the verb is meant: as a fact, as a possibility, as a command, or as a wish. Its grammar-book name is mood.
The default — a plain statement of fact — adds nothing at all. Every verb you have read so far has been one:
So if there is nothing between the person letter and the final vowel, the writer is simply telling you that something is so. An empty mood box is the indicative.
What can go in that box
| Marker | Means | Lesson |
|---|---|---|
| nothing | a statement of fact | this one |
ei | may, might, so that | 6.2 |
r (at the very end) | a command | 6.3 |
oi | a wish | 6.4 |
Most of what you read is in this lesson's mood, so the practical skill is spotting the other three when they appear.
Voice & mood
| slot | marker | example |
|---|---|---|
| active | a | luatō — he looses |
| middle | e | luetō |
| passive | i | luita — he was loosed |
| indicative | ∅ | luatō |
| subjunctive | ei | luateiō — he may loose |
| imperative | r | luasōr — loose! |
| optative | oi | luatoiō — he would loose |
In the Greek — the same four moods
Greek has indicative, subjunctive, imperative and optative, and marks them by altering the vowel before the ending and swapping the ending set — λύει, λύῃ, λυέτω, λύοι. The changes are small and easy to misread, which is a common source of beginners' errors. Here each mood has its own letters and nothing else moves.