New Testament Greek for Beginners

(Based on the book with the same title by Gresham Machen, The MacMillan Company, 1923)

References

20. The part of the verb which remains constant throughout the conjugation and has the various endings added to it is called the stem. Thus the present stem of λύω is λυ-. The present stem of a verb can be obtained by removing the final ω from the form given in the vocabulary. Thus the present stem of λέγω, I say, is λεγ-. The conjugation of the present active indicative of any verb in the vocabulary can be obtained by substituting the present stem of that verb for λυ- and then adding the endings -ω, -εις, -ει, -ομεν, -ετε, -ουσι, as they are given above.

The primary personal endings, which would naturally stand in the tenses called primary tenses,* were, it seems, originally as follows:

* The primary tenses are the present, the future, and the perfect; the secondary tenses are the imperfect, the aorist, and the pluperfect.