The non-indicative forms of εἰμί, part 1: subjunctive, infinitive, imperative

Participles are also a non-indicative form, but they are used frequently enough to be covered in a separate post.

I find the subjunctive of εἰμί difficult in terms of spelling; the singular forms are entirely vowels.  All six forms (singular and plural, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person) are found in the New Testament. 

The proper translation of subjunctive forms is particularly dependent on context.  English makes a distinction between 'might' and 'should', for example; Greek, not so much.  In the New Testament, in practice, many (most?) of the subjunctive forms of εἰμί are translated by 'might be'.

Present subjunctive 

 

ὦ                               I could / should / might be

ᾖς                              you could / should / might be (sing.)

ᾖ                                he/she/it could / should / might be

ὦμεν                          we could / should / might be

ἦτε                            you could / should / might be (pl.)

ὦσιν                          they could / should / might be

 

Notes:

1  Generally, subjunctives contain lengthened vowels; specifically, here we find ω and η.  Notice, for example, the subjunctive 2-P ἦτε in comparison to the indicative 2-P ἐστέ.

2  However, this means that - again, in the case of εἰμί - present subjunctives with η may be confused with imperfect indicatives.  For example, the subjunctive ἦτε is identical in spelling to the imperfect indicative ἦτε, and the subjunctive ᾖς looks very similar to the imperfect ἦς.

 Infinitive

There is only one infinitive for εἰμί: the present infinitive εἶναι.  It is a common form in the New Testament, used about 125 times.

There are no separate (one-word) infinitive forms in modern Greek, but είναι persists as the 3-S present indicative: he/she/it is.          

Imperative

One convention to indicate an 2nd person imperative form in the context of a paradigm is to add '!', i.e., γράψον, 'write!'.  

____                     (no first person forms)

ἴσθι                      [you, sing.]  be!  

ἤτω / ἔστω          let him / her / it be   

____                    (no first person forms)

ἔστε                    [you, pl.]  be!

ἔστωσαν            let them be

Notes:

1  The form ἔστω is considerably more common than ἤτω.

                

2  I can find no instances of ἔστε being used in the NT.  The form ἐστε or ἐστέ is common as the 2-P present indicative.

Conjugations: indicative forms of εἰμί

This is the first in a series of full conjugations of New Testament Verbs, eventually to be listed under 'Pages'.

Notes:  

1  Εἰμί ('I am') is irregular.  It has a present tense, a past tense, and future.  The past tense is considered to be an imperfect, by the sense of the verb.

2  There is no active/passive distinction for this verb.

3  Forms of the present indicative are enclitic, except for the second person singular εἶ.   They are given accents in paradigms by convention, to show where the accent goes when appropriate.

Present indicative 

 

εἰμί                             I am

εἶ                                 you are (sing.)

ἐστί(ν)                        he/she/it is

ἐσμέν                          we are

ἐστέ                            you are (pl.)

εἰσί(ν)                        they are

 

Imperfect indicative

 

ἤμην                            I was
ἦς / ἦσθα                    you were (sing.)

ἦν                                he/she/it was

ἦμεν / ἤμεθα               we were

ἦτε                              you were (pl.)

ἦσαν                           they were

 

Future indicative

 

ἔσομαι                        I will be

ἔσῃ                             you will be (sing.)

ἔσται                          he/she/it will be       

ἐσόμεθα                      we will be
ἔσεσθε                        you will be (pl.)       

ἔσονται                       they will be