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The Ancient Greek infinitive is a non-finite verb form, sometimes called a verb mood, with no endings for person or number, but it is (unlike in Modern English) inflected for tense and voice (for a general introduction in the grammatical formation and the morphology of the Ancient Greek infinitive see here and for further information see these tables).
The infinitive is found in all three voices, and in the present, aorist, future, and perfect tenses. The four infinitives of the active voice of the verb λύω (lúō) "I free" are as follows: Present : λῡ́ειν (lúein) "to free" (in general) Future : λῡ́σειν (lúsein) "to be going to free"
In both of the above examples, the aorist infinitive is used, implying "to do at once", as opposed to "to do in general" or "regularly". Another frequent use of the infinitive is to make an indirect statement, especially after verbs such as φημί (phēmí) "I say" and οἴμαι (oímai) "I think". As above, there are two constructions, one ...
Examples are: icatax ihmiimzo 'I want to go', where icatax is the singular infinitive of the verb 'go' (singular root is -atax), and icalx hamiimcajc 'we want to go', where icalx is the plural infinitive. Examples of the transitive infinitive: ihaho 'to see it/him/her/them' (root -aho), and ihacta 'to look at it/him/her/them' (root -oocta).
In the four examples of indirect statement below, all the main verbs of the original speech have been changed to an infinitive. The first example is an indirect present tense open conditional. The present infinitive ἐλευθεροῦν ( eleutheroûn ) represents a present indicative ( ἐλευθεροῖς eleutheroîs "you are freeing ...
The predominant word order in Greek is SVO (subject–verb–object), but word order is quite freely variable, with VSO and other orders as frequent alternatives. [3] Within the noun phrase, adjectives commonly precede the noun (for example, το μεγάλο σπίτι, [to meˈɣalo ˈspiti], 'the big house').
Perfect infinitives (prior infinitives) occur at a time before the main verb. Future infinitives (subsequent infinitives) occur at a time after the main verb. For example, the contemporaneous infinitive in this sentence, Dīxērunt eum iuvāre eam. would still be translated "They said he was helping her," even though iuvāre is a present ...
Latin deponent verbs can belong to any conjugation. Their form (except in the present and future participle) is that of a passive verb, but the meaning is active. Usually a deponent verb has no corresponding active form, although there are a few, such as vertō 'I turn (transitive)' and vertor 'I turn (intransitive)' which have both active and deponent forms.