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8.4b: Deponent verbs

You encountered for the first time the endings  -μαι,  -ῃ or  -ει,  -ται,  -μεθα,  σθε,  -νται when you studied the future   ἔσομαι. Yet the future of the verb to be has, of course, a regular active meaning:  its meaning is such as we would expect if the endings were  ω, εις, ει, ομεν, ετε, ουσι(ν). In this verb only the future stem takes "middle" endings.  Other verbs are conjugated entirely or in some of their tenses with middle (sometimes atypically passive) forms.  This will become clearer with further examples.  When we find in a dictionary or a vocabulary a verb like the present  ἔρχομαι, we know that we need to conjugate it with "middle" endings.  Yet there is nothing special about its meaning,  "come or go."  Traditional grammarians called such verbs deponent, suggesting that they gave up or "laid down" (from Latin de-pono) the active endings. The following charts show the Present  Indicative of two deponent verbs, with their translations.

 

  Present Indicative of   γί(γ)νομαι1

singular

translation

plural 

translation

  γί(γ)νομαι

I become / come to be

   γι(γ)νόμεθα

we become / come to be

  γί(γ)νῃ* or  γί(γ)νει

you (sg) become/ come to be

   γί(γ)νεσθε

you (pl)  become / come to be

  γί(γ)νεται

he becomes / comes to be

   γί(γ)νονται

they become / come to be

  Present Infinitive:   γί(γ)νεσθαι to  become / come to be

 

 * The ending ῃ is far more frequent than ει, (a later alternative ending)

 

  Present Indicative of   ἔρχομαι

singular

translation

plural 

translation

  ἔρχομαι

I come or go

   ἐρχόμεθα

we come or go

  ἔρχῃ or ἔρχει

you (sg) come or go

   ἔρχεσθε

you (pl)  come or go

  ἔρχεται

he comes or goes

   ἔρχονται

they come or go

  Present Infinitive:   ἔρχεσθαι to  come or go

COMMON DEPONENT VERBS

 αἰσθάνομαι = to perceive (through the senses).  Cf "aesthetic."

 βούλομαι = to want.  Compare Latin volo, English "voluntary."

 γί(γ)νομαι1  = to  become / come to be or be born

 ἔρχομαι= to come or go

 εὔχομαι = to pray

 οἴομαι = to suppose, think, believe

EXAMPLES OF THEIR USAGE

a)    οὔτε2 [πιστεύειν ἐθέλετε3]   οὔτε    [ἀκούειν    βούλεσθε]

                       compl. infinitive          V                                     compl. infinitive          V 

 

You (pl) neither are willing to trust //me// nor want to hear //me//.

 

b)   [τὰ τέκνα ἀεὶ βούλεται παίζειν.]    

            S                                            V                compl. infinitive         

 

Children always want to play.

 

c)   [κακῆς ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς γίγνεται τέλος4 κακόν.] 

                    .....   ἀπό + gen   ....               V                       ........  S  ..........

 

From a bad beginning comes a bad end. (= A bad end results from a bad beginning.)

 

                 main clause                                dependent clause

d)   [τί ἐθέλεις μανθάμειν] ( ἐπεὶ μαθητὴς γίγνῃ τοῦ Σωκράτους5);

          DO     V                   comp. inf                                          PN                  V                   ........  gen  ..........

 

What do you wish to learn, when you become a disciple of Socrates?

NOTES

1: In koinê Greek,  γίνομαι

2: οὔτε ... οὔτε = neither... nor

3:  ἐθέλω = to wish, be willing and  βούλομαι = to want are synonyms.  Both, like their English translations, take an infinitive.

4:  τέλος is a neuter noun of the 3rd declension = end, goal

5:  Σωκράτης is a masculine noun of the 3rd declension.  Here we have the genitive.