-μι Verbs — Present

Historical Grammar

412. The conjugation of μι-verbs differs from that of ω-verbs only in the present, imperfect, and second aorist active and middle; and (rarely) in the second perfect. The μι forms are made by adding the endings directly to the tense-stem without any thematic vowel, except in the subjunctive of all verbs, and in the optative of verbs ending in -νῡμι.

413. Verbs having second aorists and second perfects of the μι form are, as a rule, ω-verbs, not μι-verbs, in the present. Thus, the second aorists: ἔβην (βαίνω go), ἔγνων (γιγνώσκω know); the second perfect: τέθναμεν (θνῄσκω die).

414. There are two main classes of μι-verbs.

A. The root class. This class commonly ends in -η-μι or -ω-μι (from stems in ε, α, or ο). The present stem is usually reduplicated, but may be the same as the verb-stem, which is a root.

B. The -νῡμι class. This class adds νυ (νῡ), after a vowel ννυ (ννῡ), to the verb-stem. In the subjunctive and optative regularly, and sometimes in the indicative, verbs in -νῡμι are inflected like verbs in -ω.

C. There are some (mostly poetic) verbs in -νημι, which add να-, νη- to form the present stem; as δάμ-νη-μι I subdue, δάμ-να-μεν we subdue.

415. All the possible μι forms do not occur in any single verb. τίθημι and δίδωμι are incomplete and irregular in the second aorist active; and ἔσβην went out from σβέννῡμι is the only second aorist formed from νῡμι-verbs. ἐπριάμην I bought, second aorist middle (from the stem πρια- with no present), is given in the paradigms in place of the missing form of ἵστημι; and ἔδῡν I entered from δύ̄ω (but formed as if from δῦμι) in place of a second aorist of the νῡμι-verbs.

416. (A) Root Class. – Inflection of τίθημι place, ἵστημι set, δίδωμι give, in the present, imperfect, and second aorist tenses; and of ἐπριάμην I bought.

Active — Concluded

Middle and Passive — Concluded