Participle Formation
The standard way of listing participles is by aspect, as we do here: progressive, future, future perfect, aorist, and perfect. Then each aspect is divvied into voice: active, middle, and passive, when it differs from the middle. This standard presentation makes sense because we learn participles by aspect, and we think in terms of aspect when analyzing and composing words.
There is, however, another way to think about participles, and that is by their formation: thematic, sigmatic, and athematic. In this way we see morphological patterns more clearly and simplify the available paradigms for forming participles.
Perhaps the most confusion with participle formation concerns whether the masculine nominative singular is marked by lengthening or /ς. For this reason, the charts below list the nominative singular and genitive singular of the masculine, feminine, and neuter. Where paradigms differ (and all the ways they are the same) should be clearer this way.
<link forms to pages on how they are constructed>
…are “thematic” and “athematic” the right terms here? That is, where does the perfect active fit?
ACTIVE
THEMATIC
progressive
| ἄγ/οντ/L > ἄγων | ἄγ/οντ/Jα > ἄγουσα | ἄγ/οντ/ > ἄγον |
| ἄγ/οντ/ος > ἄγοντος | ἄγ/οντ/Jα/Lς > ἀγούσης | ἄγ/οντ/ος > ἀγοντος |
future
| ἄγ/σ/οντ/L > ἄξων | ἄγ/σ/οντ/Jα > ἄξουσα | ἄγ/σ/οντ/ > ἄξον |
| ἄγ/σ/οντ/ος > ἄξοντος | ἄγ/σ/οντ/Jα/Lς > ἀξούσης | ἄγ/σ/οντ/ος > ἄξοντος |
asigmatic aorist
| ἀγ/αγ/όντ/L > ἀγαγών | ἀγ/αγ/όντ/Jα > ἀγαγοῦσα | ἀγ/αγ/όντ/ > ἀγαγόν |
| ἀγ/αγ/όντ/ος > ἀγαγόντος | ἀγ/αγ/όντ/Jα/Lς > ἀγαγούσης | ἀγ/αγ/όντ/ος > ἀγαγόντος |
perfect*
* The formation of the perfect active participle is so peculiar it may be best to consider it separately from the others.
SIGMATIC
sigmatic aorist
| λέγ/σ/αντ/ς > λέξας | λέγ/σ/αντ/Jα/ > λέξασα | λέγ/σ/αντ/ > λέξαν |
| λέγ/σ/αντ/ος > λέξαντος | λέγ/σ/αντ/Jα/Lς > λεξάσης | λέγ/σ/αντ/ος > λέξαντος |
ATHEMATIC
progressive
| δί/δο/ντ/ς > δίδους | δί/δο/ντ/Jα/ > δίδουσα | δί/δο/ντ/ > δίδον |
| δί/δο/ντ/ος > δίδοντος | δί/δο/ντ/Jα/Lς > διδούσης | δί/δο/ντ/ος > δίδοντος |
aorist
| βά/ντ/ς > βᾶς | βά/ντ/Jα/ > βᾶσα | βά/ντ/ > βάν |
| βά/ντ/ος > βάντος | βά/ντ/Jα/Lς > βάσης | βά/ντ/ος > βάντος |
MIDDLE
THEMATIC
progressive
future
asigmatic aorist
SIGMATIC
sigmatic aorist
| λέγ/σ/αμενο/ς > λεξάμενος | λέγ/σ/αμενα/L > λεξαμένη | λέγ/σ/αμενο/ν > λεξάμενον |
| λέγ/σ/αμενο/o > λεξαμένου | λέγ/σ/αμενα/Lς > λεξαμένης | λέγ/σ/αμενο/o > λεξαμένου |
ATHEMATIC
progressive
aorist
perfect
PASSIVE
THEMATIC
The only time a thematic passive participle differs from the middle is the future passive participle.
future passive
ATHEMATIC
aorist
reading morphologically 