Chapter 3: Verbs

What Is a Verb?

A verb expresses an action or a state: - Actions: run, write, give, destroy - States: is, seems, remains, exists

Every complete sentence requires a verb; it is the syntactic core around which other elements are organised.

The Latin term verbum literally means “word” — because the verb was considered the essential word of any sentence.

What Verbs Tell Us

A verb in an inflected language can pack enormous amounts of information into a single word. Consider the Latin amāverant:

• Who is doing the action: they (3rd person plural)
• When it happened: before another past event (pluperfect)
• How it’s presented: as fact (indicative mood)
• The relationship to the subject: they performed it (active voice)

English needs five words to say the same thing: they had loved.

This chapter explains each of these categories.

Person and Number: Who’s Doing It?

Person

Person identifies who is performing the action relative to the speaker:

Number

Number tells us how many are acting:

The dual is a distinct set of verb endings for two people acting together. It was archaic even in Classical Greek and had largely disappeared by Hellenistic times.

Combined, person and number give these possibilities (shown for languages without the dual):

How Languages Mark Person and Number

In English, verbs change very little — only third person singular stands out:

Other languages mark every person distinctly. Compare “to love” in the present:

Why This Matters

In Spanish, Latin, and Greek, the verb ending tells you who’s acting. You don’t need a separate pronoun:

The pronoun is optional — often used only for emphasis. The verb ending carries the information.

French and German require the pronoun because their verb endings are less distinctive (French aime/aimes/aiment all sound identical).

Identifying Person and Number

When you encounter a verb, ask: 1. What’s the ending? 2. Which person and number does that ending indicate? 3. Is there a subject stated? If not, the ending tells you the subject.

Tense: When Does It Happen?

The Basic Concept

Tense locates the action in time:

The Full Tense System

Most European languages make finer distinctions within these basic categories.

Tense Names in All Languages

Tense Summary

Present Tense

Action happening now or as a general truth.

Note: English distinguishes “I write” (habitual) from “I am writing” (right now). Most other languages use one form for both.

Historical note on the English progressive: The progressive (or continuous) tense — I am writing, she was running — is a relatively recent development in English. Old English had no grammaticalized progressive; like Latin, it used the simple present for both ongoing and habitual actions. The construction be + present participle (-ende > -ing) existed but was rare and primarily adjectival (“he was sleeping” = “he was asleep”). The progressive expanded dramatically between 1400 and 1800, eventually becoming obligatory for actions in progress. You can see its absence in Early Modern English: Shakespeare writes “What do you read, my lord?” (Hamlet), not “What are you reading?” The King James Bible has “Why weepest thou?” and “Whom seek ye?” — forms that sound archaic today precisely because Modern English now requires the progressive for ongoing action. This makes English unusual among European languages: the progressive-vs-simple distinction is now grammatically mandatory, whereas Spanish, French, German, and even Latin use their simple present for both meanings.

Imperfect Tense

Past action viewed as ongoing, repeated, or incomplete. English has no single form for this — it uses phrases like “was writing” or “used to write.”

The imperfect is used for: - Background actions in narrative: The sun was shining. Birds were singing. - Habitual past actions: Every day he walked to school. - Attempted or incomplete actions: He was trying to escape.

Perfect Tense

Completed action, often with relevance to the present.

Important differences: - English distinguishes “I wrote” (simple past) from “I have written” (present perfect) - Spanish has both: escribí (simple past) and he escrito (compound perfect) - Latin’s perfect covers both meanings — context determines which - Greek’s perfect emphasises the present result of a past action

Pluperfect Tense

Action completed before another past action — the “past of the past.”

When I arrived, she had already left.

Future Tense

Action that will occur after the present.

Historical note on the Romance future: The Spanish and French future tenses did not descend directly from the Latin future (scrībam, “I will write”). Instead, they developed from a Late Latin periphrastic construction: infinitive + habēre (“to have”), expressing obligation or intention. Scrībere habeō (“I have to write” / “I am to write”) became, through phonetic reduction, Spanish escribiré and French j’écrirai. The auxiliary habēre fused with the infinitive and lost its independent meaning — a process called grammaticalization. You can still see the habēre conjugation in the endings: Spanish -é, -ás, -á, -emos, -éis, -án and French -ai, -as, -a, -ons, -ez, -ont mirror the present tense of “to have” (he, has, ha… / ai, as, a…). The Latin synthetic future (amābō, monēbō, scrībam) was lost because its forms had become confusingly similar to other tenses. Compare the German aspect shift: Old High German ga-/gi- marked perfective aspect but became grammaticalized as the past participle marker ge-, losing its original meaning.

Future Perfect Tense

Action that will be completed before a future reference point.

By tomorrow, I will have finished.

The Aorist

Definition: A past tense that views the action as a simple, complete event without reference to duration or repetition. The name comes from Greek ἀόριστος meaning “undefined” or “unlimited” — it simply states that something happened.

The aorist is the default narrative tense in Greek, equivalent to the simple past in English. Where the imperfect says “he was doing X” (emphasising duration), the aorist says “he did X” (stating the bare fact).

The Aorist in Spanish and French

Spanish and French both preserve an aorist-like tense distinct from the imperfect:

Spanish pretérito indefinido: The Spanish simple past (escribí, hablé, comí) functions exactly like the Greek aorist — it presents past actions as complete events:

Ayer escribí una carta. — Yesterday I wrote a letter. (single completed event) Cuando era niño, escribía poemas. — When I was a child, I used to write poems. (habitual, imperfect)

French passé simple: The French simple past (j’écrivis, je parlai) is the exact equivalent, though in modern spoken French it has been largely replaced by the passé composé (j’ai écrit). It remains common in formal writing and literature:

Il entra, regarda autour de lui, et sortit. — He entered, looked around, and left.

The imperfect would change the meaning entirely: > Il entrait… — He was entering… (incomplete, background action)

Historical note on the French passé simple: The decline of the passé simple in spoken French is a relatively recent development. Until the 17th century, both the passé simple (je parlai) and the passé composé (j’ai parlé) were used in speech with a meaningful distinction: the passé simple for narrative events detached from the present, the passé composé for events with present relevance (like the English “I have spoken”). Over time, the passé composé expanded to cover all past functions in speech, while the passé simple retreated to formal written registers — novels, historical writing, journalism. Today, using the passé simple in conversation sounds archaic or literary. The passé composé has thus become aspect-neutral in spoken French (like the German Präteritum), covering both “I spoke” and “I have spoken.” This shift parallels what happened in northern Italian dialects and colloquial German, where compound past forms have largely replaced simple past forms in speech.

English Equivalents

The Greek aorist typically translates as the English simple past:

Contrast with the imperfect:

The Aorist in All Moods

Unlike Latin, where the perfect serves for both completed past and simple past, Greek has a complete aorist system across all moods:

Key insight: Outside the indicative, the aorist does not indicate past time. It indicates aspect — the action viewed as a complete whole rather than an ongoing process.

Gnomic Aorist

Greek sometimes uses the aorist for general truths (what always happens):

ὁ καιρὸς ἔδειξεν τὸν φίλον. Time shows (lit. “showed”) the true friend.

This “gnomic aorist” expresses timeless truths by presenting them as established facts.

Why Latin Has No Aorist

Latin merged the aorist and perfect into a single tense (the “perfect”). The Latin perfect scrīpsī can mean: - “I wrote” (simple past = Greek aorist function) - “I have written” (completed with present result = Greek perfect function)

Context determines which meaning applies.

Aspect: How Is the Action Viewed?

The Concept

Aspect is related to but distinct from tense. While tense tells you when, aspect tells you how the action is viewed.

Aspect Names in All Languages

Aspect in English

English shows aspect through verb phrases: - I write — simple (no particular aspect) - I am writing — progressive/continuous (imperfective) - I have written — perfect (completed with present relevance) - I have been writing — perfect progressive (both!)

Common error: Do not confuse the progressive (I was sitting) with the passive (I was seated):

• ✓ I was sitting there when she arrived. — progressive: I sat, ongoing action
• ✓ I was seated by the waiter. — passive: someone seated me
• ✗ I was sat there when she arrived. — wrong (unless someone physically sat you down)

Similarly: - ✓ He was standing by the door. — progressive - ✗ He was stood by the door. — wrong

The forms was sat and was stood are common in some British dialects but are grammatically incorrect in standard English. The progressive requires -ing: was sitting, was standing.

Aspect in Greek

Greek builds aspect into the verb stem itself. The same action can be expressed differently:

The choice isn’t about when but about how you view the action: - Use present stem to emphasise the process or duration - Use aorist stem to state the bare fact - Use perfect stem to emphasise the completed result

Why This Matters

When translating from Greek (and to some extent Latin), aspect affects your English word choice:

Mood: How Is It Presented?

The Concept

Mood expresses the speaker’s attitude toward the action — is it a fact, a command, a wish, a possibility?

Mood Names in All Languages

Indicative Mood

The default mood for stating facts and asking questions.

Imperative Mood

Direct commands.

For third person (“let him write”), languages use various constructions: - English: Let him write - Spanish: Que escriba - French: Qu’il écrive - Latin: Scrībat (subjunctive used as command) - Greek: γραφέτω (third-person imperative form)

Subjunctive Mood

The subjunctive expresses actions that are not straightforward facts — wishes, possibilities, purposes, doubts.

English has nearly lost its subjunctive, but it survives in several forms:

1. Past Subjunctive (“were”)

Used for hypothetical or unreal conditions: - If I were you, I would refuse. (not “was”) - I wish she were here. (not “was”) - He acts as if he were the boss. (not “was”)

In informal speech, was often replaces were, but formal English preserves the distinction.

2. “Were to” + Infinitive

A more explicit subjunctive construction for hypothetical futures: - If I were to accept, what would happen? - If the sun were to explode, we would have eight minutes.

See Chapter 7A: Conditional Sentences for full coverage.

3. Mandative Subjunctive (Present Subjunctive)

Used after verbs of demanding, suggesting, recommending — the verb takes its base form (no -s for third person): - I demand that he be present. (not “is”) - She insisted that he leave immediately. (not “leaves”) - It is essential that she arrive on time. (not “arrives”) - The committee recommended that the proposal be accepted.

This is more common in American English; British English often uses should instead: I suggest that he should go.

4. Formulaic Subjunctives

Fixed expressions preserving older subjunctive forms: - God save the King! / Long live the Queen! - Heaven forbid! / Be that as it may. - Come what may. / So be it. - Far be it from me to criticise. - If need be…

5. “Lest” Constructions

The conjunction lest (meaning “for fear that”) takes the subjunctive: - He whispered lest he be overheard. (formal/literary) - She studied hard lest she fail.

This construction is archaic in everyday speech but appears in formal and literary English.

Understanding English’s remnant subjunctive helps when learning Spanish, French, Latin, German, and Greek, all of which use the subjunctive extensively.

Common subjunctive uses:

In Latin:

Optative Mood (Greek)

Greek has a fourth mood for wishes and potentials. Latin merged these functions into the subjunctive.

German Subjunctive: Konjunktiv I and II

German has two subjunctive moods with distinct functions.

Konjunktiv I (Reported Speech)

Konjunktiv I is used primarily for indirect discourse — reporting what someone said:

• Direct: Er sagte: “Ich bin krank.” (He said: “I am ill.”)
• Indirect: Er sagte, er sei krank. (He said he was ill.)

It is formed from the infinitive stem:

Konjunktiv I is mainly found in formal writing (journalism, academic texts). In everyday speech, Germans often use Konjunktiv II or indicative for reported speech instead.

Konjunktiv II (Hypotheticals)

Konjunktiv II is used for hypothetical and unreal conditions:

• Wenn ich reich wäre, würde ich reisen. (If I were rich, I would travel.)

It is formed from the past tense stem, often with umlaut:

For weak verbs where Konjunktiv II looks identical to past indicative, German uses würde + infinitive: - Wenn ich arbeiten würde… (If I were working…)

Alternative Names

You may encounter different terminology in German grammars:

General terms: - Möglichkeitsform (possibility form) — the subjunctive mood generally

For Konjunktiv I: - Indirekte Rede (indirect speech) — named for its primary function - Konjunktiv Präsens (present subjunctive) — older term, because it is formed from the present/infinitive stem

For Konjunktiv II: - Irrealis (unreal mode) — named for its role in describing non-real situations - Konjunktiv Präteritum (past subjunctive) — older term, because it is formed from the past tense stem

See Chapter 7A: Conditional Sentences for full coverage of German conditionals.

French Conditional Mood

French has a distinct conditional mood (conditionnel), formed from the future stem + imperfect endings:

The conditional expresses: - Hypothetical outcomes: Si j’avais le temps, je viendrais. (If I had time, I would come.) - Polite requests: Je voudrais un café. (I would like a coffee.) - Reported future in past: Il a dit qu’il viendrait. (He said he would come.)

See Chapter 7A: Conditional Sentences for full coverage.

Identifying Mood

Ask: Is this a statement of fact? A command? A wish or possibility? Something in a subordinate clause that requires subjunctive?

The verb ending changes with mood, so you need to recognise these forms.

Voice: Who Does What to Whom?

The Concept

Voice describes the relationship between the subject and the action.

Voice Names in All Languages

Active Voice

The subject does the action.

Passive Voice

The subject receives the action. The doer (if mentioned) becomes an “agent.”

How to express the agent (doer) in passive sentences:

Middle Voice (Greek)

Greek has a third voice where the subject acts on itself or in its own interest:

Latin and modern European languages lack a middle voice. They use reflexive constructions instead: - Spanish: Me lavo (I wash myself) - French: Je me lave (I wash myself) - German: Ich wasche mich (I wash myself)

Deponent Verbs

Some verbs look passive (or middle) but have active meaning. These are called deponent verbs.

Latin deponents:

Greek middle-only verbs:

These must be memorised — you can’t tell from the form alone that they have active meaning.

Conjugation: Patterns of Verb Forms

Just as nouns follow patterns called declensions, verbs follow patterns called conjugations (from Latin coniugātiō, “a yoking together”).

Latin Conjugations

Latin has four main conjugations, identified by the vowel before the infinitive ending:

Each conjugation has characteristic endings for all tenses, moods, and voices.

Spanish Conjugations

Spanish has three conjugations:

French Conjugations

French traditionally has three groups:

Why Conjugations Matter

Knowing a verb’s conjugation tells you what endings to expect. When you learn a new verb, learn which conjugation it belongs to.

Principal Parts

Many grammars list principal parts — the key forms from which all other forms can be derived.

Latin Principal Parts

Latin verbs have four principal parts:

A dictionary entry looks like: scrībō, scrībere, scrīpsī, scrīptum — to write

Greek Principal Parts

Greek verbs can have up to six principal parts:

Finite vs. Non-Finite Forms

Finite Verbs

A finite verb is marked for person and number — it can be the main verb of a sentence:

• He writes — finite (3rd person singular)
• They wrote — finite (3rd person plural)

Non-Finite Forms

Non-finite forms are not marked for person. They cannot stand alone as the main verb of an independent clause.

The Infinitive

Definition

The infinitive is the basic, unconjugated form of a verb. It names the action without specifying who performs it or when.

In English, the infinitive is typically marked by to: to write, to love, to be.

Infinitive Forms Across Languages

Uses of the Infinitive

Tense and Voice in Infinitives

Latin and Greek infinitives have tense and voice forms:

Latin infinitives of amō (to love):

Greek infinitives of λύω (to loose):

Important: Tense in infinitives expresses aspect or relative time, not absolute time: - Present infinitive = action ongoing or simultaneous with main verb - Aorist/perfect infinitive = action completed before main verb

The Accusative and Infinitive Construction

Latin uses a special construction for indirect statements:

The subject of the infinitive goes into the accusative case. This construction is extremely common in Latin prose.

The Participle

Definition

A participle is a verbal adjective — it derives from a verb but functions as an adjective, modifying a noun.

English Participles

Latin Participles

Note: Latin lacks a perfect active participle (having loved) and a present passive participle (being loved).

Greek Participles

Greek has a complete set of participles for all tenses and voices:

Participial Agreement

Participles are adjectives and must agree with the nouns they modify:

The Gerund

Definition

A gerund is a verbal noun — it derives from a verb but functions as a noun.

English Gerund

The -ing form used as a noun: - Writing is difficult. (subject) - I enjoy reading. (object) - She is good at swimming. (object of preposition)

Note: English -ing forms can be gerunds (nouns) or participles (adjectives). Context determines which: - The swimming boy — participle (modifies boy) - Swimming is fun — gerund (subject of sentence)

Latin Gerund

A verbal noun used when the infinitive cannot be used (e.g., after prepositions, in certain cases).

Gerund-like Functions Across Languages

The following examples show how each language expresses the same gerund-like concepts. The relevant form is highlighted in bold.

“Writing is difficult.” (verbal noun as subject)

Note: Only English uses a distinct gerund form. Other languages use the infinitive (with or without an article) as a verbal noun.

“I enjoy reading.” (verbal noun as object)

“He learns by reading.” (verbal noun expressing means)

Note: French gérondif and Spanish gerundio function as adverbs (manner/means), not as nouns. Latin uses the gerund in the ablative case.

“The art of writing” (verbal noun in genitive/possessive)

“He came to read.” / “He came in order to read.” (purpose)

Alternative Latin: Vēnit legendī causā. (gerund genitive + causā)

Summary: How Each Language Handles Verbal Nouns

Expressing Obligation: “The book must be read.”

Latin has the gerundive of obligation — a verbal adjective expressing necessity. Other languages must use different constructions:

Alternative constructions: - French: Il faut lire le livre. (impersonal falloir) - Spanish: Hay que leer el libro. (impersonal haber que)

The Gerundive

The gerundive is a verbal adjective formed with -ndus, -nda, -ndum. It declines like a 1st/2nd declension adjective and agrees with a noun.

Formation: stem + -ndus, -a, -um

Declension example: amandus, amanda, amandum

Gerund vs. Gerundive

Gerund: verbal noun (neuter singular only) - ars legendi — the art of reading

Gerundive: verbal adjective (agrees with a noun) - ars librōrum legendōrum — the art of reading books (lit. “of books to-be-read”)

When a gerund would take a direct object, Latin prefers the gerundive construction:

Gerundive of Obligation

The gerundive with the verb “to be” expresses necessity or obligation — something that must be done. The agent (who must do it) appears in the dative.

With intransitive verbs (no direct object), use the impersonal neuter: - Nōbīs eundum est. — It must be gone by us. → We must go. - Tibi labōrandum est. — It must be worked by you. → You must work.

Summary of Non-Finite Forms

The key point: look for the finite verb to find the core of any clause. Non-finite forms depend on finite verbs or function as nouns/adjectives within the clause.

Identifying Verbs: A Method

When you encounter a verb form, work through these questions:

1. What is the base verb? (the infinitive/dictionary form)
2. What conjugation?
3. What person and number? (who’s doing it? how many?)
4. What tense? (when?)
5. What mood? (fact, command, possibility?)
6. What voice? (active, passive, middle?)

Worked Example

Parse amāverant (Latin):

1. Base verb: amō, amāre — to love
2. Conjugation: 1st (-āre)
3. Person/number: -nt ending → 3rd person plural (they)
4. Tense: -era- marker → pluperfect (had done)
5. Mood: indicative (statement of fact)
6. Voice: active (they did the loving)

Translation: “they had loved”

Translating Verb Forms into English

Tense Correspondence

Subjunctive in Translation

English lacks a robust subjunctive. Common strategies:

Passive in Translation

Latin uses passive more than English. Often, convert to active:

Summary

Verb Features Across Languages

This table shows which verb categories each language has (✓) or lacks (—), and what construction is used instead.

Key observations: - Latin merged the aorist into its perfect tense (one form covers both “I wrote” and “I have written”) - Latin merged the optative into its subjunctive (one mood covers wishes, purposes, and potentials) - German uses the same Präteritum for both imperfect and aorist meanings (context determines aspect — see historical note below) - English lost most verb inflection and relies on auxiliaries (have, be, will) and modal verbs (might, would, should)

Historical note on German aspect: Old High German (Althochdeutsch, c. 750–1050) did mark aspect through verbal prefixes, especially ga-/gi- (modern ge-). An unprefixed verb indicated ongoing action (sizzēn — to be sitting), while the prefixed form indicated completion or entry into a state (gasizzēn — to sit down). This parallels how Slavic languages still mark aspect today. By Middle High German, the ge- prefix became grammaticalized as a past participle marker and lost its independent aspectual meaning, leaving Modern German with an aspect-neutral Präteritum. Compare the English genitive: Old English -es was a case ending; Modern English -’s is merely an orthographic convention marking possession.

Previous: Chapter 2: Pronouns

Next: Chapter 3A: Conjugation Tables