Vasile Stancu

New Testament Greek for Beginners

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

References

44. Movable ν

When the -ουσι of the third person plural of the verb comes either before a vowel or at the end of a sentence, a ν, called movable ν, is added to it. Thus βλέπουσιν ἀποστόλους. Sometimes the movable ν is added even before a word that begins with a consonant. Thus either λύουσι δούλους or λύουσιν δούλους is correct. It must not be supposed that this movable ν occurs at the end of every verb form ending in a vowel when the next word begins with a vowel. On the contrary, it occurs only in a very few forms, which must be learned as they appear.