Is Classical Greek really so "Irregular"

 IS CLASSICAL GREEK 

Really So IRregular ?

#classicalgreek #greek #irregular 

So a few times a year I like to review basic Greek and I did a Google search to see what people thought was the most difficult aspect of learning Classical Greek and after understanding the Alphabet the other problem that came up several times was "IRREGULAR" forms?

Yes Greek has more suffixes and morphs than English. 

Yes you have to learn Moods and Cases and Conjugations and Genitive and Declensions

 but think for a moment!

Is Greek really that much worse than English?

Greek has less homophones. 

Even so called irregular verbs follow common patterns.

You say the verb to be?

Look again at English. Modern English forms of the verb TO BE  fuses two different Old English Germanic verbs wesan and beon and then goes and uses other verbs that once had different meanings like should and would and could  to express conditionals and a change of spoken tone can make a statement like "you should be reading" into an Imperative an Exhortation or a Question?

So the Greek Subjunctive Mood is that much worse? 

Is it such a terrible thing that phrases like the The Good Book and the Good Woman use two different forms of THE and have case endings? 

GREEK IRREGULAR VERBS

#GREEKIRREGULARVERBS

Some Thoughts

Is working out and remembering all the various forms of Classical Greek Verbs a major hassle for you? Some thoughts and advice apart from getting a good dictionary or bookmarking lexicon sites

(Eternal blessings to the person who give me their LSJ)

Depending on how you classify the classes or categories or types  there are 8 - 12 main types plus subcategories however basically for most its a case of the ongoing battle of Sigma versus NU !

They either add Sigma for Future and Aorist or change a consonant to C + Sigma

If you're trying to find the stem the pattern works in reverse

This covers - uw -iw aw - ew -ow and various consonant stems BUT

Mi verbs are getting a separate study

Verbs that have retain or drop a final stem n are actually 4 - 5  types

Stems that add nw long vowels plus vw stems that add - anw and sometimes insert an extra nasal m or n like lambano or manthanw

a(i)vw e(i)nw verbs in which the i drops out before the n

unw verbs

I will be posting vocabulary lists and more detail soon starting with the -ue -iw forms

but you say what about final ls and rs ...yes I will discuss them too!

If its ou its ...

#greekiregularverbs #greekgrammar

IF It's OU it's probably ...

So a few days ago someone was asking about Greek Irregular Verbs

Here's one tip I'm thinking of making into a color mini poster

If it ends in ou and its a verb

A) Its Imperfect or Imperative

B) Its either an -ooo or -eoo verb or a mi verb

C) If a mi verb its probably dideemi

1) Whether ou appears in the middle of a verb or at the last its probably a contraction of the following

o+o  o+e  e + ou  e +o  o + ei  o +ou   OU

Some numi verbs

SOME – νυμι Verbs

Note One Some books print - νυμι verbs without the macron over the upsilon ῡ

Note Two many of these verbs are only used combiend with prefixes.

Note Three

δείκνῡμι

is used for text book paradigms

δαίνῡμι entertain dine stem δαι dai

ἕννῡμι cloth robe stem wes like latin ves-tis

ζώννῡμι gird belt ζω sdoo

ζεύγνῡμι bind yoke join stem ζυγ

κεράννῡμι mix usually liquids stem κερα κρα kera kra

κορέννῡμι satiate satisfy stem κορε kore

κρεμάννῡμι suspend hang stem κρεμα krema

μΐγνῡμι mix mingle stem μιγ mig

οἴγνῡμι open stem oig

ὄλλῡμι stem ol is contracted from olnumi

ὄμνῡμι swear an oath stem ομο or μο om(o)

ὄρνῡμι raise rouse stem ορ or

πήγνῡμι fix stem παγ

πετάννῡμι expand spread stem πετα peta

ῥήγνῡμι break stem ῥαγ rag wrag

ῥώννῡμι strengthen stem ῥω ro

σβέννῡμι extinguish put out smother stem σβε sbe

σκεδάννῡμι scatter stem σκεδα

χρήγνῡμι color

If you missed it scroll back to read my post on δείκνῡμι.