Greek Imperatives

The imperative mood occurs when a verb makes a command. The verb has a 2nd and 3rd person, occuring in the present and aorist tenses where the aspect is significant; the Greek impertaive has no indication of time. Typically it is an instance of a person telling another to do something - that is, giving a command. There is no English equivalent of the Greek 3rd person imperative, so in translating, often a 'helper' pronoun is provided.

The imperative uses the present tense stem (continous action) or the aorist tense stem (without augment) (undefined action).

Formation

Present tense stem + Connecting vowel + Imperative morpheme

Unaugmented Aorist Stem + Tense Formative + Imperative morpheme

Imperative morpheme chart

  active and aorist passive middle and passive
2 sg ? ?
3 sg τω σθω
     
2 pl τε σθε
3 pl τωσαν σθωσαν
Contract verbs: αε -> α, εε -> ε, οε -> οθ.

 

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