Determining Tense of a Verb

[LearningGreek]

Hello all,

I am on chapter 20 of mounces basics of biblical greek and for the first time I have hit a wall.

Mounce discusses that tense stems are formed from a tesnse root. For example λυ is the root with λυω the present and λυσω being the future.

He states there are 4 patterns of roots. Pattern one roots (which λυ is) do not have their root modified when the different tenses are formed and thus are the easiest to work with.

The other three patterns (multiple roots used to form each stem [pattern 2], liquid roots [pattern 3] and roots that are modified to create present tense stem [patter 4]) are harder to work with.

Where I am completely lost is that I do not know where to begin to figure out what I am looking at.

For example if I see ὄψεται I know that its personal ending is primary middle/passive singular but I get a deer in the headlights type look when trying to figure out if its present or future or liquid (thus far I have only learned 6 master indicatives (present act and mid/pass, fut act/mid, liquid fut/mid).

I want to say its liquid present but short of looking it up I am not sure. And if I have to do this with every verb I think that I am doing something wrong.

Any tips on how to figure out the tense of a verb?

Thank you for your time and help.

[Stephen Carlson]

For pattern 2, to which ὄψεται belongs, you’ll just have to memorize them. Fortunately, they are pretty common and when you do a lot of reading it’s fairly easily to pick up enough examples to stick in your brain. (A hint that ὄψεται is future is that ψ (ps) hides a sigma. Same for ξ.)

Liquid is just for verbs whose stems end in λ μ ν ρ. Those are the “liquid consonants.” In the future, they have a circumflexed vowel in the end. Compare μἐνει (“he stays”) to μενεῖ (“he will stay”). This is one of the situations where it pays to pay attention to the accents.

Pattern 4 is for verbs like λάμβανω ~ ἔλαβον. These will mostly need to be memorized, but there are some common present stem formations, like the infixed νυ, the suffixed σκω, etc., that cue this pattern.

[Shirley Rollinson]

Hello all,

I am on chapter 20 of mounces basics of biblical greek and for the first time I have hit a wall.

Mounce discusses that tense stems are formed from a tesnse root. For example λυ is the root with λυω the present and λυσω being the future.

He states there are 4 patterns of roots. Pattern one roots (which λυ is) do not have their root modified when the different tenses are formed and thus are the easiest to work with.

The other three patterns (multiple roots used to form each stem [pattern 2], liquid roots [pattern 3] and roots that are modified to create present tense stem [patter 4]) are harder to work with.

Where I am completely lost is that I do not know where to begin to figure out what I am looking at.

For example if I see ὄψεται I know that its personal ending is primary middle/passive singular but I get a deer in the headlights type look when trying to figure out if its present or future or liquid (thus far I have only learned 6 master indicatives (present act and mid/pass, fut act/mid, liquid fut/mid).

I want to say its liquid present but short of looking it up I am not sure. And if I have to do this with every verb I think that I am doing something wrong.

Any tips on how to figure out the tense of a verb?

Thank you for your time and help.

If you'd like some practice with verb stems and the future tense, you can try the online textbook at
http://www.drshirley.org/greek/textbook ... future.pdf
http://www.drshirley.org/greek/textbook ... liquid.pdf
http://www.drshirley.org/greek/textbook ... utures.pdf
Don't spend a lot of time trying to figure things out - get practice with reading. Languages tend not to be 'logical' - they all have strange quirks that one only learns to deal with by practicing the language.

[LearningGreek]

Thank you both for the help and thank you for the practice links. Very helpful!