Introduction to Ancient Greek Present Active Optative Verbs
Ancient Greek optative mood verbs are generally used to express wishes or actions which have some degree of optionality.
"I could / would / might do something" are all examples of the optative mood.
However, the optative mood can also be used in other ways, as well (which will not be examined on this test page). Namely, optatives are also used in conditional sentences, as polite ways of making requests, and in reporting indirect speech. (For a more in-depth discussion, see PRESSBOOKS.COM for a further explanation of optative verbs. PUBLICONSULTING.COM covers optative verbs well, too.)
Paradoxically, present active optatives do not necessarily occur in the present! Rather, the "present tense" here refers to aspect instead of time. (ie: the action must be an ongoing state, or set of repeated actions. See Jerome Moran regarding verb tense aspect for optatives.)
Present active optative verbs in Ancient Greek are composed of a verb stem and one of the following endings: -οιμι, -οις, -οι, -οιμεν, -οιτε or -οιεν. 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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