The present active indicative
You will split a regular Greek verb into stem and ending, recognise the six present active endings, and see in real verses that the present tense usually describes an ongoing or repeated action.
Stem and ending
Jesus opens many of His sayings with "Truly, truly, I tell you" John 3:3. The Greek for "I tell" is ("LEG-oh"), "I say". The last lesson showed that a verb's ending carries its person and number. Split λέγω in two and you get λεγ- and -ω. The front part, the stem, carries the meaning "say". The back part, the ending, carries "I". Meaning lives in the stem, and who is acting lives in the ending.
A regular verb in the present changes only its ending. Here is λέγω:
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | λέγ-ω, "I say" | λέγ-ομεν, "we say" |
| 2nd | λέγ-εις, "you say" | λέγ-ετε, "you (all) say" |
| 3rd | λέγ-ει, "he says" | λέγ-ουσι(ν), "they say" |
As one line to learn: -ω, -εις, -ει, -ομεν, -ετε, -ουσι(ν). The ν in brackets is sometimes there and sometimes not. Notice the little vowel before the last part of each ending: an ο in -ομεν and -ουσι, an ε in -εις, -ει and -ετε. That vowel is your clue for recognising the ending. The verb εἰμί from the last lesson broke this pattern, but most verbs you meet from now on follow it.
Let us find the endings in real verses. The ending -ει (3rd singular) is in ("EH-khee"), "he has", in the promise that whoever hears and believes "has eternal life" John 5:24. The ending -εις (2nd singular) is in , "do you believe?", Jesus' question to Martha. The ending -ετε (2nd plural) is in , "you have", from "in the world you have tribulation". And -ουσιν (3rd plural) is in "they hear", where the sheep listen to the shepherd's voice.
The present is about ongoing action
The present tense usually describes something that is happening now, or that keeps happening. John 1:5 is a good example.
The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
John 1:5
, "shines", is present. The light does not flash once and disappear; it is shining in the darkness and keeps on shining. English "shines" gets close to this, but many translations lose the feel of the Greek present elsewhere. Another example comes from John 9:25, where the man born blind says, "I was blind, but now I see!" That "I see" is , "I see", a present: it is happening before his eyes at this moment. The same verb appears as , "he sees", in John 1:29, where John watches Jesus coming toward him.
For the plural, look at 1 John.
We write these things so that our joy may be complete.
1 John 1:4
("GRAF-oh-men"), "we write", is 1st person plural. The letter is being written as they speak. The same ending -ομεν is in , "we proclaim", in 1 John 1:2. Because translations sometimes use another English tense for a Greek present (the BSB, for example, has "you will have tribulation" in John 16:33), always check the label in the panel.
Active and indicative
The panel describes these forms as "present, active, indicative". You know what present means. Active means the subject does the action: "he sees", "I say". A different voice, where the subject receives the action, comes in a later lesson. Indicative you may think of for now as "a plain statement or question". The other moods have their own names, and the next lesson sorts them out. Every verb in this lesson is indicative, so read each one simply as an ordinary sentence.
Once you know these endings, this lesson's vocabulary opens up: λέγω "say", ἔχω "have", ἀκούω "hear", πιστεύω "believe", γράφω "write", γινώσκω "know" and βλέπω "see". λέγω appears about 1,300 times in the New Testament and ἔχω about 700 times. ἀκούω ("ah-KOO-oh") we met in ἀκούουσιν above, and γινώσκω ("gi-NOH-skoh") is in the same verse, where Jesus says, "I know them": . How these verbs change in other tenses we will see in the lessons to come.
Summary
A regular verb is stem plus ending, and the present active endings are -ω, -εις, -ει, -ομεν, -ετε, -ουσι(ν). The present usually means something happening now or again and again. Active means the subject performs the action, and indicative, for now, means a plain statement.
Words in this lesson
- legōto say1,279 times in the NT
- echōto have/be707 times in the NT
- akouōto hear426 times in the NT
- pisteuōto trust (in)237 times in the NT
- graphōto write190 times in the NT
- ginōskōto know222 times in the NT
- blepōto see132 times in the NT
Practice
- Practice 1 of 14
How is divided into stem and ending?
- Practice 2 of 14
What person and number is ?
- Practice 3 of 14
What does the ending -ομεν show?
- Practice 4 of 14
Which ending is on ?
- Practice 5 of 14
What does the present tense of suggest about the light?
- Practice 6 of 14
In John 9:25 the man says "now I see". Which form is ?
- Practice 7 of 14
What does "active" mean?
Word practice
- Practice 8 of 14
λέγω (legō) — What does it mean?
- Practice 9 of 14
ἔχω (echō) — What does it mean?
- Practice 10 of 14
ἀκούω (akouō) — What does it mean?
- Practice 11 of 14
πιστεύω (pisteuō) — What does it mean?
- Practice 12 of 14
γράφω (graphō) — What does it mean?
- Practice 13 of 14
γινώσκω (ginōskō) — What does it mean?
- Practice 14 of 14
βλέπω (blepō) — What does it mean?
Original text and grammar: STEPBible (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0). Pronunciation: Erasmian Greek, academic Hebrew. The listen button uses the device’s modern Greek/Hebrew voice. Scripture quotations: BSB.