Lesson 4.2 · Verbs
Person and number
Who is acting: I, you, he, we, ye, they.
One letter in the middle of the verb says who is doing it. Four of the six are the pronoun letters you already met in Lesson 3.4:
| Letter | Means | Example |
|---|---|---|
m | I | agapamō — I love |
s | you (one person) | agapasō — you love |
t | he, she, it | agapatō — he loves |
n | we | agapanō — we love |
v | ye (more than one) | agapavō — ye love |
l | they | agapalō — they love |
Six letters, and they never change — not in any tense, not in any part of the language. Learn these six and you will always know who a sentence is talking about.
Person endings
| marker | example | |
|---|---|---|
| I | m | luamō |
| you | s | luasō |
| he/she/it | t | luatō |
| we | n | luanō |
| ye | v | luavō |
| they | l | lualō |
A memory hook.
mi → m, si →
s, ni → n,
vi → v. The pronouns and the verb letters
are the same sounds. Only t (he/she/it) and
l (they) are new.In the Greek — six endings per tense, times many tenses
Greek marks person too, but with a different set of six endings for each tense and voice: -ω -εις -ει -ομεν -ετε -ουσιν in the present active, -ον -ες -ε -ομεν -ετε -ον in the imperfect, -μαι -σαι -ται… in the middle and passive, and so on. That is dozens of forms to recognise. Here it is one letter, in one place.
Practice
- Who is acting in
pisteuavō? - Who is acting in
legatō? - Make "we love" from
agap-.
Show the answers
v— ye, more than one person. "Ye believe."t— he, she or it. "He says."agapanō.