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Greek Verbs –
Contract Verbs and
Irregular Forms
The Irregular “To Be”
• The verb “to be” in Greek is enai
• All forms of the verb in the Present indicative are
enclitic except for the 2nd person singular
Singular
Plural
1st person
e„m…
I am
™smšn
We are
2nd person
e
You are
™ste
You are
3rd person
™st…(n)
He/she/it is
e„s…(n)
They are
Contract Verbs
• Some w verbs have specially formed
endings resulting from a contracting of
vowels in the ending
• Some rules of vowel changes for these
verbs are as follows:
– e + e  ei
– e + o  ou
– e followed by a long vowel or diphthong
is elided or drops out
– a + w, o, or ou  w
– a + ei or e  a (iota becomes a subscript)
Contract Verbs in e
1st Person
Singular
Plural
filšw  filî
filšomen 
filoàmen
2nd Person filšeij  file‹j
3rd Person
filšei  file‹
filšete  file‹te
filšousi(n) 
filoàsi(n)
Contract Verbs in a
1st Person
Singular
Plural
Tim£w  timî
Tim£omen 
timîmen
2nd Person Tim£eij  tim´j
Tim£ete  tim©te
3rd Person
Tim£ousi(n) 
Tim£ei  tim´
timîsi(n)