The common irregular athematic verbs εἰμί, εἶμι

εἰμί “to be, exist”

You have already been introduced in Module 1 to the verb εἰμί “be, exist” and its third person imperfect indicative, ἦν ‘she/he/it was’. We’ll now learn the rest of its indicative and optative forms.

εἰμί has only two principal parts:

• εἰμί, ἔσομαι, —, —, —, —

Think about what this implies. Why do you think there are no aorist or perfect forms of εἰμί in Greek?

εἰμί illustrates the general principle that the most irregular forms are found in the most common words. It is precisely because they are so frequently used that common words like “to be” resist change or regularization as a language evolves. We summarize here the present tense forms of εἰμί in both indicative and optative moods.

	Indicative	Optative
first singular	εἰμί	εἴην
second singular	εἶ	εἴης
third singular	ἐστί(ν)	εἴη
first plural	ἐσμέν	εἴημεν / εἶμεν
second plural	ἐστέ	εἴητε / εἶτε
third plural	εἰσί(ν)	εἴησαν / εἴεν

Note that, like φημί, the present indicative forms of εἰμί are enclitic. As with φημί, we write them here with accent on the ultima of two-syllable forms. Note that in the third person plural, two quite distinct forms are possible in the optative.

When you see the accented forms ἔστι(ν) (with a normal recessive accent), it is asserting existence, similar to English “There is,” “There exists,” or even “It is possible,” rather than merely linking a subject and predicate. In this existential usage, ἔστι will often come at the beginning of the clause.

The present active participle of εἰμί has nominative singular forms ὤν, οὖσα, ὄν. You will be happy to see that its forms look like accented versions of the endings you already know from regular present active participles.

The only past tense forms of εἰμί are the imperfect.

	Singular	Plural
first person	ἦν, ἦ	ἦμεν
second person	ἦσθα	ἦτε
third person	ἦν	ἦσαν

εἶμι “to go”

Another common irregular athematic verbs is εἶμι “will go.” It has a single principal part:

• εἶμι, —, —, —, —, —

In the following summary, notice that in contrast to εἰμί “to be”, εἶμι “to go” has regular recessive accent.

Present active indicative of εἶμι:

	Singular	Plural
first person	εἶμι	ἴμεν
second person	εἶ	ἴτε
third person	εἶσι, εἶσιν	ἴασι, ἴασιν

In Attic Greek prose, the present indicative forms of εἶμι have a future sense, and the present forms of εἶμι are used for the future of ἔρχομαι (rather than forms dervied from ἐλεύσομαι, the second principal part that would normally be used for forming future tense forms).

The present active participle of εἶμι is ἰών, ἰοῦσα, ἰόν. The (very short!) stem ι- is clearly visible in all forms, but note that the accent persists on the ending, rather than on the stem as it does in regular verbs like κελεύων, κελεύουσα, κελεῦον.

In the present optative, we see the same stem ι- with familiar personal endings.

Present active optative of εἶμι:

	Singular	Plural
first person	ἴοιμι or ἰοίην	ἴοιμεν
second person	ἴοις	ἴοιτε
third person	ἴοι	ἴοιεν