| Shortcut Conjugation |
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| Written by Dina Teka-Efstathiou | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Greek Verb Ending with the Letter Ω Verbs ending in γω have a “shortcut” form where you drop the γ. Below is the verb λέγω (I say) in both its forms; on the left is the full form, on the right is the short form
The present tense in Greek does double duty as both simple
present and continuous present tense. That is, if you say: Αυτός γράφει ένα γράμμα. You may translate it as either “He
writes a letter” or “He is writing a letter,” depending on your meaning.
There's no distinction between these forms in present tense.
Future Continuous
We're
going to look at future tense first. Once you learn future tense, it becomes
very easy to construct the past tense of Greek verbs; it just doesn't work as
well the other direction. So be patient as we learn the future tense so that,
sometime in the future, you'll be able to talk about the past.
Although
Greek doesn't make any distinction between “I write” and “I am writing” in
present tense, they do make the distinction in the future tense.
There's one form for “I will be writing” and another for “I
will write.”
The “will be ...ing” form is called the future continuous,
and is used to denote actions that take place over an extended period of time
or occur repeatedly.
Here are some English examples:
I will be writing web pages for six hours.
This sounds weird in English; we'd usually just use the
simple form of the future, and let the words like “every day” prompt us in to
the continuity. I will be using the continuous form in the following example to
emphasize that we are working with future continuous.
Future continuous is the easiest tense to form; just add the
word θα before the present tense,
and there you have it.
The Greek word for future continuous is μέλλοντας εξακολουθητικός.
Acknowledgments
www.langintro.com/greek/verbs
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