[B-Greek] Future Tense Help

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Tue Dec 28 08:32:06 EST 2004


At 7:07 AM -0500 12/28/04, Jim West wrote:
>At 06:59 AM 12/28/2004, you wrote:
>>Dear B-Greek,
>>
>>I've been studying Greek for 4-5 months now and am working my way through 
>>Dobson's Learn NT Greek (I'm on chapter 26 of 52). I've reached future 
>>tenses ("I will/will not") and I'm stumped. It seems that verb stems can 
>>be very irregular when it comes to the future (different stems entirely as 
>>well as shortened). Do I just have to learn each verb's variation as it 
>>comes up?
>
>Pretty much, yes.
>
>
>>The only other grammar book I have is Wallace's Beyond the Basics but that 
>>doesn't help (I bought it for when I've completed Dobson and I start on 
>>Mounce's Graded Reader).
>>
>>Any advice on tackling future tenses would be gratefully appreciated!
>
>Find a verb chart- for instance in Summer's Elementary Greek grammar there 
>was (at least 20 years ago when I studied Elementary Greek) a nice pull out 
>chart with all the verb forms on it.  Verb charts are very, very useful- as 
>you can generally plug in the stem and viola- the complete form is visible.
>
>That said, there's nothing quite as useful as actually memorizing (I know- 
>gasp!!) verb forms. (Along with noun forms as well I might add).

I would suggest a simplification of Jim's reasonable response:

What you DO need to learn i, first of all basics of future-tense-stem formation:
vowel verbs like LUW and PAIDEUW normally simply add a Sigma to form the future
stem; LUS-, PAIDEUS-; consonant verbs may show a spelling change because the
combination of consonant + -S- results in a Xi, Psi, or else a single Sigma
resulting from simplification of a double sigma (AGW to AX-, GRAFW to GRAY-,
KLWQW to KLWS-, etc.); contract-verbs lengthen the stem vowel before the -S-:
TIMAW to TIMHS-, POIEW to POIHS-, DHLOW to DELWS-); then there are the
liquid/nasal stems that lose the -S- of a -ES- formative elment and therefore
form futures like present-tense -EW verbs (STELLW to STELEW TO STELW=, FQEIRW to
FQEREW to FQERWA=)

Once you have that down, You need to memorize the principal parts of all verbs
whose future stems or other verb-tense stems are not predictable from the verb
stem of the lexical form or the present indicative first-singular. There are
only three or four dozen such verbs and there are some charts for them. Rod
Decker has one in PDF at his site and I have a PDF listing at my site also:

	http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/Docs/IrregularVerbsGNT.pdf

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/



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