Introduction to Ancient Greek Present Active Imperative Verbs
Imperatives in Ancient Greek (and other languages) are commands issued to someone else.
The "present tense" of Present Active Imperatives refers not to time but to the aspect of the orders. In short, Present Active Imperatives are commands that are expected to be followed not once, but as an ongoing process.
For example, a doctor might tell a patient, "Eat less fatty food!" In this exhortation, the doctor is issuing an order which should always be followed. (ie: it is not an order that is to be followed one time and then forgotten about.)
In Ancient Greek, imperatives exist only for 2nd and 3rd person singular and plurals (ie: You {singular}, He / She / It, You {plural} and They). They do not exist for 1st person singular or 1st person plural (ie: I and We).
Every present active imperative in Ancient Greek is composed of a verb stem and one of the following endings: -ε, -ετω, -ετε or -οντων. Of course, these verb-endings will be modified according to the Ancient Greek contraction rules if the word in question is an α-, ε-, or o- contract verb. (Click the yellow review button for more details.)
This test does not include accent marks, but does include α-, ε-, and o- contract verbs.
For each question, click on the best answer. Some answers may appear incomplete because a direct or indirect object is not provided.
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