First aorist participles

You form participles using the same principal parts familiar to you from finite verb forms. To form the aorist tense in the active or middle voice, we use the third principal part; to form the aorist tense in the passive voice, we use the sixth principal part. To form the present participle in all three voices, we use the first principal part, just as we do to form all three voices of the imperfect indicative.

You will be happy to discover that participles use the same endings as adjectives you have already learned. Like adjectives (and other substantives), participles have persistent accent.

Formation of participles

You have learned that finite verb forms add an augment to the beginning of the form for tenses referring to past time. Recall that the first principal part does not include an augment, while the third and sixth principal parts do, so when you form the imperfect tense, you need to add an augment to the first principal part’s stem.

Augments are only used in finite forms, so when we form the aorist participles from the third principal part (active and middle voices) and sixth principal part (passive voice), the first step is to remove the augment and accent, and drop the first singular ending.

Participles have persistent accent, like substantives, so when you learn you learn how to form the participle for each tense/voice combination, note what syllable its accent persists on.

Active voice of first aorists: a 3-1-3 declension

We use the third principal part for aorist active forms. Taking κελεύω as an example, we would form the aorist active participle in these four steps:

1. Remove the augment and accent
2. For masculine and neuter forms, create a third-declension stem with nominative singular/genitive singular ending -ας, -αντος (masculine) or -αν, -αντος (neuter); for feminine forms, create a first-declension stem with nominative singular/genitive singular ending -ασα, -άσης
3. As usual, find the stem from the genitive singular, and add the regular ending from the third declension (for masculine, neuter) or first declension (for feminine) to match the gender, case and number of the participle’s subject.
4. Apply the appropriate accent. The accent of the aorist active and middle participles tries to persist on the antepenult.

Notice the parallel to the formation of finite verb forms: the stem tells you the tense and voice; for finite verbs, the ending shows the person, number and mood, while for participles, the ending shows gender, case and number.

Here is a complete declension of the aorist active participle of κελεύω.

Case, number	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Singular
Nominative singular	κελεύσᾱς	κελεύσασα	κέλευσαν
Genitive singular	κελεύσαντος	κελευσάσης	κελεύσαντος
Dative singular	κελεύσαντι	κελευσάσῃ	κελεύσαντι
Accusative singular	κελεύσαντα	κελεύσασαν	κέλευσαν
Plural
Nominative plural	κελεύσαντες	κελεύσασαι	κελεύσαντα
Genitive plural	κελευσάντων	κελευσασῶν	κελευσάντων
Dative plural	κελεύσασι, κελεύσασιν	κελευσάσαις	κελεύσασι, κελεύσασιν
Accusative plural	κελεύσαντας	κελεύσασας	κελεύσαντα

An example

We’ll devote much of this module to looking at how participles are used, but let’s walk through one concrete example.

The clause εἶδε Ἐρατοσθένη (“He saw Eratosthenes) is a complete sentence. The verb form is third person singular aorist indiciative active (“he saw”), and the direct object (“Eratosthenes”) is in the masculine accusative singular. Let’s modify this sentence to add a subordinate idea, that Eratosthenes did these things. In English, we could do that with a subordinate clause:

He saw Eratosthenes,

who did these things.

In Greek, our main clause will be εἶδε Ἐρατοσθένη. We’ll express the subordinate idea with a participle from πράττω.

To form the participle, we’ll take the third principal part, and remove accent and augment

(1) ἔπραξα -> πραξ-

We’ll be using a masculine form to agree with Eratosthenes, so we’ll form its third-declension pattern:

(2) πραξ- -> πραξας, πραξαντος

We will take the stem from the genitive singular form, and add the third-declension ending for masculine, accusative, singular :

(3) πραξαντος -> πραξαντ- + α

Finally, we’ll apply the accent. The accent of the aorist active participle tries to persist on the antepenult.

(4) πραξαντ + α -> πράξαντα

We want to attach the participle to Eratosthenes because he will be the subject of the subordinate verbal expression. We’ll look in detail at how to attach participles to nouns, but for this example let’s just put it in attributive position after the article: τὸν πράξαντα. Just like finite verb forms, participles can have direct objects, so we’ll include the direct object “these things” within the attributive phrase: τὸν ταῦτα πράξαντα. Here’s our complete sentence:

εἶδε ἐρατοσθένη

τὸν ταῦτα πράξαντα.

The first verbal expression is an independent clause with the finite verb εἶδε; the second verbal expression is a participial expression. The subject of εἶδε is third singular (implied “he, she, it”). The subject of πράξαντα is ἐρατοσθένη (agreement in gender, case, number). Together these two verbal expressions express the equivalent of the two English clauses, “He saw Eratosthenes, who did these things.”

Middle voice of first aorists: a 2-1-2 declension

Follow a similar process to form the aorist middle participle:

1. Remove the augment and accent
2. For all three genders, extend the stem with -αμεν-
3. Add regular ending from second third (masculine, neuter) or first (feminine) declension to match the gender, case and number of the participle’s subject.
4. Apply the appropriate accent by trying to persist on the antepenult.

Here is a complete declension of the aorist middle participle of κελεύω.

Case, number	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Singular
Nominative singular	κελευσάμενος	κελευσαμένη	κελευσάμενον
Genitive singular	κελευσαμένου	κελευσαμένης	κελευσαμένου
Dative singular	κελευσαμένῳ	κελευσαμένῃ	κελευσαμένῳ
Accusative singular	κελευσάμενον	κελευσαμένην	κελευσάμενον
Plural
Nominative plural	κελευσάμενοι	κελευσάμεναι	κελευσάμενα
Genitive plural	κελευσαμένων	κελευσαμένων	κελευσαμένων
Dative plural	κελευσαμένοις	κελευσαμέναις	κελευσαμένοις
Accusative plural	κελευσαμένους	κελευσαμένας	κελευσάμενα

Passive voice: a 3-1-3 declension

The aorist passive participle, like the finite forms of the aorist passive tense, is formed from the sixth principal part. It uses third-declension endings for the masculine and neuter forms, and first-declension endings for feminine forms. Compare the patterns of nominative/genitive singular in -είς/-έντος, -εῖσα/-είσης, -έν/-έντος with the aorist active pattern -ας/-αντος, -ασα/άσης, -αν/-αντος.

The accent of the aorist passive participle is persistent on the first syllable of the ending.

1. Remove the augment and accent
2. For masculine and neuter forms, create a third-declension stem with nominative singular/genitive singular ending -είς, -έντος (masculine) or -έν, -έντος (neuter); for feminine forms, create a first-declension stem with nominative singular/genitive singular ending -εῖσα, -είσης
3. Add regular ending from second third (masculine, neuter) or first (feminine) declension to match the gender, case and number of the participle’s subject.
4. Apply the appropriate accent to the first syllable of the ending.

Case, number	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Singular
Nominative singular	κελευσθείς	κελευσθεῖσα	κελευσθέν
Genitive singular	κελευσθέντος	κελευσθείσης	κελευσθέντος
Dative singular	κελευσθέντι	κελευσθείσῃ	κελευσθέντι
Accusative singular	κελευσθέντα	κελευσθεῖσαν	κελευσθέν
Plural
Nominative plural	κελευσθέντες	κελευσθεῖσαι	κελευσθέντα
Genitive plural	κελευσθέντων	κελευσθεισῶν	κελευσθέντων
Dative plural	κελευσθεῖσι, κελευσθεῖσιν	κελευσθείσαις	κελευσθεῖσι, κελευσθεῖσιν
Accusative plural	κελευσθέντας	κελεύσασας	κελευσθέντα