3.9 Present Tense: The Second Pattern — Epoché
What you will be able to do Conjugate a verb of the second pattern: μιλάω , μιλάς , μιλάει , μιλάμε , μιλάτε , μιλάνε . Hear which pattern a verb belongs to before you have seen it written, because the stress is in a different place. Use the two verbs an English speaker needs first in Greece: the one for speaking a language and the one for liking anything at all. Say what language you speak and ask what language somebody else speaks: Μιλάω Γαλλικά. , Μιλάτε γαλλικά; . Put a short object pronoun in front of the verb, which is where Greek keeps it: Την αγαπάω. , Μ' αγαπούν. . Prerequisites : 3.8 — the first present-tense pattern. Read 3.8 Grammar first, because this lesson is defined by the contrast with it. The second pattern is smaller than the first and it contains several of the verbs you will need soonest. The whole difference is the stress. In the first pattern it sits on the syllable before the ending and stays there; in the second it sits on the ending itself, which changes how every one of the six forms sounds. Because the stress is on the ending, the endings are longer and easier to hear apart than the first pattern's were. That is the compensation for having two patterns at all: the class that is harder to spot in a dictionary is the one that is easier to catch in speech. The pattern Person To speak To love, to be fond of I μιλάω αγαπάω you, one person μιλάς αγαπάς he, she, it μιλάει αγαπάει we μιλάμε αγαπάμε you, more than one, or one politely μιλάτε αγαπάτε they μιλάνε αγαπούν Put a form of this pattern beside the matching form of the first and say them one after the other. γράφω against μιλάω ; γράφουμε against μιλάμε ; γράφουν against μιλάνε . In each pair the stress moves one syllable to the right, and that movement is the whole of what distinguishes the two classes. The third person plural has two forms in this pattern, which is worth knowing before it surprises you. One is the form in the table; the other, αγαπούν , is built differently and is the one you will see in careful writing. Both are correct, both are current, and the corpus uses both. Learn one and recognise the other. The dictionary form is again the first person singular, and in this pattern it is often printed with a shorter ending in older books. If you meet a verb whose dictionary form has the stress on its last syllable, it belongs here, whichever of the two spellings the book prefers. Both of the verbs in the table take a plain accusative object, and this is where the third thing in this lesson appears. Greek puts a short object pronoun in front of the verb, not after it. Greek Word by word Natural English Την αγαπάω. [1] her — I love I love her. Την αγαπάει. [2] her — he loves He loves her. Μ' αγαπούν. [3] me — they love They love me. Σου μιλάω. [4] to you — I speak I talk to you. That order is fixed and it is not a stylistic option. The full set of these short pronouns, and the rule about where they sit, is lesson 3.10; what you need today is the habit of expecting the object before the verb rather than after it. How English says it English has no equivalent of the two-pattern split, because English verbs do not change their stress. What an English speaker has to build is an ear for it, and the fastest way is to say the two paradigms alternately until the difference stops needing thought. It helps that the two verbs in this lesson are ones you will say every day in Greece, and that the two in the previous lesson are ones you will read every day. The verb for speaking is worth a paragraph of its own. Greek uses it with a bare language name and no preposition and usually no article: the word for English is a neuter plural noun, and the whole of do you speak English is two words. English needs three, and one of them is an auxiliary that Greek does not have. Note also that the corpus translates the same Greek question sometimes as do you speak and sometimes as can you speak , because Greek does not distinguish them here and English politeness does. The verb for loving is the one that will feel wrong to an English speaker, and it is worth saying why. English keeps love for people and for strong feeling, and uses like for everything else. Greek is happy to use this verb of books and flowers as well as of people, as Αγαπάω τα βιβλία. and Αγαπάω τα λουλούδια. show. It is not an overstatement in Greek. There is a separate verb for the English like , and you have already met it in lesson 3.4, where it turned out to work backwards: it makes the thing liked the subject. Finally, the object pronoun. English says I love her , with the object after the verb, and an English speaker will produce that order in Greek without noticing. The result is not ambiguous but it is unmistakably foreign. Put the small word first, keep it unstressed, and let the verb carry the stress: Την αγαπάω. is two words with one stress, and it should sound like one word. Real sentences Eighteen lines from the public corpus, arranged by person. Read the Greek aloud and put the stress on the last syllable of every verb. Greek English The person, and what to listen for Μιλάω Γαλλικά. [5] I speak French. first singular; the language is a bare neuter plural Δε μιλάω Αγγλικά. [6] I don't speak English. first singular negated, with the negative in a shortened form Αγαπάω τα βιβλία. [7] I love books. first singular; the verb for loving used of books Αγαπάω τα λουλούδια. [8] I love flowers. the same verb used of flowers, which English would not do Μιλάς Αγγλικά; [9] Can you speak English? second singular question, translated with can although Greek says nothing of the kind Μιλάς αγγλικά; [10] Do you speak English? the identical question, translated the other way Μ' αγαπάς; [11] Do you love me? second singular with the object pronoun elided in front Μιλάει Αγγλικά. [12] He speaks English. third singular; nothing in the sentence says whether it is a man or a woman Γαλλικά μιλάει; [13] Does she speak French? third singular with the object put first for emp