# differences in present verb tenses



## CrepiIlLupo

γειά σας όλοι,

I am obviously new to this forum, and I am also fairly new to the Greek language.  I have been learning for about three months now, and must apologize in advance for mistakes, especially in relation to the typing of Greek characters (for I am also not very internet savvy).

I have been reading this forum for a while, and just recently decided to sign up and participate because I am still a bit bashful about my skill level in the Ελληνικά γλώσσα.  But I am hoping to improve, and suggestions are of course welcomed.

With that out of the way...

My question has to do with the conjugation of present tense verbs.  I have seen them written in many different ways within each verb category.  The way that I have been taught to conjugate, for example, to answer is:

εγώ απαντώ
εσύ απαντάς
αυτός/αυτή/αυτό απαντά
εμείς απαντάμε
εσείς απαντάτε
αυτοί/αυτές/αυτά απαντούν

I have seen 2nd category verbs, such as απαντώ conjugated like this, however:

εγώ απαντώ
εσύ απαντάς
αυτός/αυτή/αυτό απαντ*άι*
εμείς απαντάμε
εσείς απαντάτε
αυτοί/αυτές/αυτά απαντ*άνε*

Ι was wondering what the difference was?  Just personal preference?  I have also seen the εμείς form of 1st category verbs conjugated like this (for example):

εμείς τρώγ*ουμε *instead of εμείς τρώγ*ομε *

Again, just wondering what the difference was.  

σας ευχαριστώ πολύ!


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## modus.irrealis

Hi,

First of all welcome, and good luck with learning Greek. About your questions, like you've noticed, the απαντώ-type verbs have a variety of forms, including ones you didn't bring up, so just to list them all (in the same order as you had)

απαντώ / απαντάω
απαντάς
απαντά / απαντάει
απαντούμε / απαντάμε
απαντάτε
απαντούν(ε) / απαντάν(ε)

Roughly speaking the difference is the first form is more "formal," although that's probably not the best word for it, but verbs that are felt to be inherently formal will not be used normally with the non-formal endings. Other than that there's a lot of variation depending on preference, region, context, and so on. (Also note that where you wrote -άι, it should be -άει.)

About -ουμε vs. -ομε, the latter is as far as I know either archaic or a dialect form, and the -ουμε form is the standard. But you might not have chosen the best verb because τρώγω is itself archaic, and that verb would normally be conjugated in the present tense like:

τρώω
τρως
τρώει
τρώμε
τρώτε
τρων / τρώνε

You also had one small mistake with Ελληνικ*ή* γλώσσα.


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## CrepiIlLupo

σ'ευχαριστώ modus, I appreciate the feedback and the well wishes. Thank you for clearing up my errors.

As far as your comment about formal and informal tenses go, does this mean that the conjugations which I have learned tend to be used in a more formal setting? What I mean to say is, if I go to Greece and hear Greek spoken in the streets or among friends, will I hear the second set of conjugations more often? This is an open question by the way, in case any natives wish to voice their opinion..  

Also, your input about the verb τρώγω troubles me as I was not taught about its irregular conjugation. Do you happen to know any more first, second or third category verbs which are conjugated irregularly (besides, of course, είμαι)?

Μπορώ να ρωτώ επίσης την δασκάλα μου αύριο, άλλα δεν μπορώ να περιμένω!

ευχαριστώ για την βοήθεια σας!


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## modus.irrealis

I'll let others with more experience of the Greek in Greece tell you what the exact mix is. In the Greek I hear everyday, the non-formal versions dominate, but that Greek's not representative of the Greek in Greece, so my impressions would be biased towards the non-formal endings. A last comment, though: "formal" is probably too strong a word because to compare to English, saying απαντώ is not even close to saying "whom."

About τρώω, it's not that it's irregular so much as there's a small number of verbs having a vowel before -ω that use slightly different endings than a normal 1st category verb. Off the top of my hand I can think of common words like λέω, ακούω, φταίω, καίω, κλαίω, and the subjunctives πάω, φάω.

For the present tense, I think είμαι is the only one that is truly irregular.


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## ireney

First of all welcome to the forums CrepiIlLupo 

Second of all  don't feel bashful about your level of Greek. I've never been bashful about my level of English (not even when it was on a "Me Tarzan you Jane" level) and I merrily chatter away making "small" but important mistakes along the way. 

Now first things first: Modus is right, the difference is not so much formal vs informal endings. In fact some of the "formal" endings are used more often than the "informal" alternatives. The same person (me included) may use one ending in one sentence and the other one in the next 
Song lyrics will use one or the other form depending on which serves their purpose best and the first set does not sound out of place even in the most *ahem* vulgar song.

As to whether what you learn in general is the "formal" Greek. Well, anyone learning a foreign language is bound to first learn its most formal form. Luckily for you, the formal and informal Greek are one small step away from each other and it has mainly to do with use of slang and the incorporation into language of time honoured mistakes  (think of George and me will go out for instance; that kind of mistakes).

Now, in general, different questions should be posted into different threads so if you want an indepth analysis of _a_ conjugation, I suggest you start a new thread (so that it will be easier for both you and the rest of the members to search for it).

Now about τρώω and other verbs whose stem ends in a vowel other than alpha: 
They are not irregular per se since they are all declined the same way. The same can be said about other categories of verbs, all of which present some difference in their declension according to their stem. (κατεβαίνω, ανεβαίνω though are, for instance, true irregulars)

The "true" endings of the present tense are
-ω
-ς
-ει
-με
-τε
-ν(ε)
but for reason of euphonics a standard vowel is used before this for λυνς is just plain ridiculous in standard Greek 
We therefore get
-ω
-εις
-ει
-ουμε
-ετε
-ουν

Τρώω κλαίω etc do not need the extra vowel  though. The fact that it is so widely used explains up to a point the second forms of the -αω verbs too by the way (the rest have all to do with ancient Greek; in fact all the irregularities etc of MG conjugation goes all the way back to AG).

Well, this turned out to be a rather generic and very long post


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## CrepiIlLupo

ευχαριστώ πολύ again everybody for the feedback.  I think that I am fortunate on this issue because the endings of both conjugations do not sound too phonetically different from each other.  I think that when I write the verb tenses, however, I will stick to the more "formal" endings with which I was taught.  

I brought the issue up with my δασκάλα yesterday, and she told me basically the same thing, although she shuddered at the usage of τρώουνε και τρώονε because she said the added έπσιλον at the end of the verb sounded uneducated to her.  

Anyway, thank you everybody again for the feedback.  And thank you Ireney for the encouragement about speaking Greek.  I am trying my best...  

είναι επτά η ώρα εδώ, και χρεάζομαι τον καφέ μου!

καλημέρα να σάς


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## Spectre scolaire

*a*)



			
				ireney said:
			
		

> The "true" endings of the present tense are [...]


*b*)



			
				ireney said:
			
		

> but for reason of euphonics a standard vowel is used before this for λυνς is just plain ridiculous in standard Greek. We therefore get [...]


I suppose you mean the opposite of the paradigm you present under each of these quotations.

The *a*) set of endings belongs to the so-called “half-contract” verbs – the endings you have in verbs like φταίω, τρώω, λέω, κλαίω, ακούω. Also aorists of λέω and τρώω are formally half-contract. There are many intermediate forms depending on verbs and dialects. 

The *b*) set of endings is the original one, the one that has developed directly from proto-Indo-European.

Regular _contract verbs_ on the other hand has this little “difficulty” that _the stem ends in a vowel_, ex.: {ρωτ*α*}. Basically this is the same “problem” as in Arabic where a _triliteral root_ consisting of three consonants exhibit f.ex. two consonants and a vowel. This triggers various types of contractions resulting in awkward searches for words in Arabic dictionaries (in which the “alphabetization” is normally based on the _root_).

In Greek we get ρωτώ (< {ρωτά-} + {-ω}), ρωτάς (< {ρωτά-} + {-εις}), etc. In fact, the form ρωτάω is also MSG whereas *ρωτάεις is not.The latter is contracted to ρωτάς.

Contraction rules in Classical Greek are pretty elaborate, and Modern Greek has inherited at least the principle. Those who are familiar with Classical Greek and Arabic will see stunning parallels in terms of finding the right word/root. Fortunately, in Modern Greek the situation is much less complicated, and yet, there are quite a number of dictionary references from “awkward” forms to the current dictionary _lemma_.



			
				modus.irrealis said:
			
		

> I think είμαι is the only one that is truly irregular.


Well, at least in terms of an "active verb"! The development of this verb from Cl.Gr. to MG shows that it has assumed a quasi "medio-passive" conjugation pattern. Many scholars have been busy trying to explain what actually happened to this verb...


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## ireney

spectre you might have noticed the quotation marks in my post. I should probably have called them the "standard" ones meaning that they are the ones that are constant no matter what verb you get.

There are different levels of explanation one can give. Going all the way back to the so called proto Indo-European roots (a field of studies which is amazingly interesting yet full of very educated guesses) does _not_ help someone who is asking a question because he is now learning a language.

Same goes for any kind of other explanation.

Now as a moderator I would ask you to open separate threads if you wish to discuss any matter in such linguistic depth since to fully discuss it the participants may very well have to wander off topic


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