Progressive Imperative

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Introduction

The imperative mood is used for commands. It is used in the second person (e.g. “come here!” “eat your vegetables!”) and in the third person (e.g. “let them try!”). The subjunctive mood is used for first person exhortations (e.g. “let’s go!”).

The imperative is more commonly used in the aorist, since a command tends to be more interested in the action rather than its progress. For instance, parents are more likely to say “eat your vegetables!” (aorist) than “be eating your vegetables!” or “keep eating your vegetables!” (progressive). But of course the progressive is still used.

Here’s the basic formula for forming the progressive active and middle or passive imperative:

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Intermediate

Most verbs are thematic in the progressive. This means that there’s a theme vowel (ε or ο) as a connecting vowel in the personal marker. These verbs form the progressive imperative like this:

Active Thematic

	Singular	Plural
1st Person	τέμνω (hortatory subjunctive)	τέμνωμεν (hortatory subjunctive)
2nd Person	τεμ/ν/ε > τέμνε	τεμ/ν/ετε > τέμνετε
3rd Person	τεμ/ν/ετω > τεμνέτω	τεμ/ν/οντων > τεμνόντων

Middle or Passive Thematic

	Singular	Plural
1st Person	τέμνωμαι (hortatory subjunctive)	τεμνώμεθα (hortatory subjunctive)
2nd Person	τεμ/ν/εσο > τέμνου*	τεμ/ν/εσθε > τέμνεσθε
3rd Person	τεμ/ν/εσθω > τεμνέσθω	τεμ/ν/εσθων > τεμνέσθων

* As expected, intervocalic σ drops, resulting in uncontracted /εο in Homeric and contracted /ευ in Ionic and /ου in Attic.

Athematic formations look similar:

Active Athematic

	Singular	Plural
1st Person	δίδω (hortatory subjunctive)	δίδωμεν (hortatory subjunctive)
2nd Person	δι/δο/ε > δίδου	δι/δο/τε > δίδοτε
3rd Person	δι/δο/τω > διδότω	δι/δο/ντων > διδόντων

Middle or Passive Athematic

	Singular	Plural
1st Person	δίδωμαι (hortatory subjunctive)	διδώμεθα (hortatory subjunctive)
2nd Person	δι/δο/σο > δίδοσο*	δι/δο/σθε > δίδοσθε
3rd Person	δι/δο/σθω > διδόσθω	δι/δο/σθων > διδόσθων

* Intervocalic σ does not drop when it is added directly to a base. Read here for details.

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Advanced

The verbs εἶμι (ἰ/) and εἰμι (ἐσ/) mostly form the progressive active imperative predictably. They use the 2nd person singular athematic marker /θι, but the 2nd person singular of εἰμι (ἐσ/), namely ἴσθι (instead of ἔσθι), is an enigma. The 3rd person plural of εἶμι (ἰ/), namely ἰόντων, is unexpectedly thematic.

These verbs are only used in the active:

Active Athematic of ἐσ/, “be”

	Singular	Plural
1st Person	ἔω (Ionic) or ὤ (Attic) (hortatory subjunctive)	ἔωμεν (Ionic) or ὦμεν (Attic) (hortatory subjunctive)
2nd Person	ἐσ/θι > ἴσθι	ἐσ/τε > ἔστε
3rd Person	ἐσ/τω > ἔστω	ἐσ/ντων > ἔστων

Active Athematic of ἰ/, “go”

	Singular	Plural
1st Person	ἴω (hortatory subjunctive)	ἴωμεν (hortatory subjunctive)
2nd Person	ἰ/θι > ἴθι	ἰ/τε > ἴτε
3rd Person	ἰ/τω > ἴτω	ἰ/οντων > ἰόντων

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Vocabulary for this lesson (see here for the full lexicon)