Present Tense

	*leksilOgh'io*	Vocabulary
Verbs
	*bhlEpo*	I see, look, watch
	*bhurtsIzo*	I brush
	*dhgh'abhAzo*	I read
	*etimAzo*	I prepare
	*ksipnO*	I wake up
	*pEzo*	I play
	*pigh'Eno*	I go
	*plEno*	I wash
	*strOno*	I lay
	*trOo*	I eat
Other words
	*adherfOs*	brother
	*apOgh'ebhma*	afternoon
	*arghA*	late
	*bhibhlIo*	book
	*bhrAdhi*	evening
	*ghonIs*	parents (plural)
	*dhOndi*	tooth
	*Endheka*	eleven
	*eptA*	seven
	*I*	or
	*mazI*	togtether, with
	*mesimEri*	noon
	*metA*	then, afterwards
	*pkh'O*	more
	*me ta pOdgh'a*	on foot
	*podhOsphero*	football
	*prOsopo*	face
	*proI*	morning
	*proinO*	breakfast
	*skholIo*	school
	*Ipnos*	sleep (noun)
	*phagh'itO*	food, lunch
	*phIlos*	friend
	*tileOrasi*	television
	*Ora*	hour, time, o'clock

An Ordinary Day

.
Every morning I wake up at 7 o'clock

.
I wash my face and brush my teeth

.
My mother prepares the breakfast and makes (lays) my bed.

. .
Then I go to school on foot. I walk for 10 minutes.

.
At noon I eat the food which my mother prepares.

.
In the afternoon I read a book and then I watch (see) television

.
In the evening my brother and I play football (soccer) with our friends.

.
I go to (for) sleep at 11:00 in the evening

.
My parents read or watch TV and go to sleep later

Grammar Notes

1. In this lesson we encounter the regular verbs of the active voice in the present tense (). Each verb (e.g., "") comprises a stem ("-") and an ending ("-"). The ending has to aggree in person with its subject. Thus, different endings are used when the subject is in the first person singular ("-"), third person plural (-), etc. The endings for the present tense of the regular verbs of the active voice are as listed below

   Person	Pronoun	Ending
   1st sing.		-
   2nd sing.		-
   3rd sing.	//	-
   1st pl.		-
   2nd pl.		-
   3rd pl.	//	-()

   Thus, the conjugation of our sample verb is as follows

   Person	Verb
   1st sing.
   2nd sing.
   3rd sing.
   1st pl.
   2nd pl.
   3rd pl.	()

   Note that the final "" in the third person plural can be omitted.
2. The verbs whose first person singular is stressed in the last syllable have somewhat different endings. There are two different "classes" of such verbs, which can be discriminated by the ending of the second person singular. The endinds are

   Person	1st Class	2nd Class
   1st sing.	-	-
   2nd sing.	-	-
   3rd sing.	-	-
   1st pl.	-, -	-
   2nd pl.	-	-
   3rd pl.	-(), -()	-()

   For the sample verbs (I wake up) and (I am late) the present tense is

   Person	I wake up	I am late
   1st sing.
   2nd sing.
   3rd sing.
   1st pl.
   2nd pl.
   3rd pl.	()	()

   Note that the first and third persons plural of the verb "" (and all verbs of the same class) can also be "" and "," respectively. The verbs of these two classes are actually shortened versions of the verbs "" and "", where the final vowel of the stem ("" and "," respectively) is merged with the first vowel of the ending. The merging rules are

   - = ,

   - =

3. The verb "" (I eat) is an irregular verb, as are all the verbs whose stem ends in an accented vowel (in this case the stem is "-"). Thus the present tense for the verbs "" and "" (I say) are

   Person	I eat	I say
   1st sing.
   2nd sing.
   3rd sing.
   1st pl.
   2nd pl.
   3rd pl.	()	()

   The general rule in this case is that the ending vowel is dropped except for the first and third persons singular. Thus, we can say that the endings in this case are

   Person	Ending
   1st sing.	-
   2nd sing.	-
   3rd sing.	-
   1st pl.	-
   2nd pl.	-
   3rd pl.	-()

4. Note that in Greek the verb can stand on its own and the pronoun is usually omitted. Hence, the English verbs "I eat," "she prepares" and "we play" are translated as "," "" and "" respectively, instead of " ," " " and " ."
5. When telling time, it is customary to add the phrase " " at the end. Thus
   one o' clock =
   three o' clock =
   seven o'clock =
   Also, we can specify the part of the day which we refer to at the end. Thus "eleven o' clock in the evening" is " " or simply " ," and "ten o' clock in the morning" is " ." No preposition is used (in other words, "in" is not translated in Greek) before " " and " ." This is also true when referring to a part of the day ("at noon"=" "). Finally, note that the article used when we want to specify a particular time is "." Thus, "at seven o' clock" is " ."

Remarks

• The verb "" may also be encountered as "," which is conjugated like the verb "," since its stem ends in an accented vowel.
• The possessive pronoun "" ("my") as well as all short forms of possessive pronouns follow the noun they refer to. Thus, "my bed" is " " and "my mother" is " ." The other possessive pronouns are

  English Pronoun	Greek Pronoun
  my
  your (sing.)
  his
  her
  its
  our
  your (pl.)
  their

• Regarding word order, the Greek language is very flexible, as can be seen from the sentences above. No strict rules apply, unlike other languages (e.g., German).

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