The 30 Most Common Greek Verbs, with Present and Past

A few dozen verbs make up a large share of everyday Greek. Learn these thirty with their present and past forms, and you can already talk about what you do, what you did and what you want to do. Greek dictionaries list verbs in the first person singular of the present ("I write"), not in an infinitive: Modern Greek has none. In the transliteration the accent marks the stressed syllable; ch sounds like the German ach, d like the th in "this", th like the th in "think".

The past column gives the aorist, the simple past for a completed action (έγραψα = I wrote). Three verbs have no aorist and use their continuous past instead: ήμουν (I was), είχα (I had), ήξερα (I knew). For θέλω, the everyday "I wanted" is usually ήθελα. Many of the most frequent verbs are irregular in the past (πήγα, ήρθα, είπα, είδα, έφαγα, ήπια), so learn them as pairs from the start. The aorist grammar note explains the regular patterns.

Greek verb conjugation: the two families

Almost every Greek verb in the present belongs to one of two families, depending on where the stress falls in the dictionary form.

Family A: stress on the stem (γράφω)

γράφω, γράφεις, γράφει, γράφουμε, γράφετε, γράφουν (I write, you write, he/she writes, we write, you write, they write). Most verbs in the list follow this pattern: κάνω, θέλω, έχω, βλέπω, πίνω, μένω, δουλεύω... See the present tense.

Family B: stress on the ending (μιλάω, μπορώ)

• -άω verbs: μιλάω (or μιλώ), μιλάς, μιλάει (or μιλά), μιλάμε, μιλάτε, μιλάνε (or μιλούν). Also αγαπάω, ρωτάω, πάω.
• -ώ verbs: μπορώ, μπορείς, μπορεί, μπορούμε, μπορείτε, μπορούν.

The second conjugation note covers both groups in detail.

Verbs in -μαι

A third, smaller group ends in -μαι: έρχομαι, κοιμάμαι, σκέφτομαι. They have passive endings but an ordinary active meaning: έρχομαι, έρχεσαι, έρχεται, ερχόμαστε, έρχεστε, έρχονται (I come, you come...).

Είμαι and έχω: to be and to have in Greek

Greek usually drops the subject pronoun, because the ending already shows the person: είμαι από την Ελβετία (I'm from Switzerland), έχουμε δύο παιδιά (we have two children). Notice that είναι means both "he/she/it is" and "they are". Practise both verbs with the είμαι and έχω grammar note and the είμαι and έχω exercise.

How to say "I want to..." in Greek: θέλω να

Since Greek has no infinitive, "I want to go" becomes "I want that I go": θέλω να πάω. After να, the second verb takes the person ending too: θέλεις να έρθεις; (do you want to come?), θέλουμε να φάμε (we want to eat). If the subject changes, only the second verb changes: θέλω να έρθεις = I want you to come.

For a single, one-off action, the verb after να uses the aorist stem. For common verbs, these forms are worth learning by heart:

For a habit or repeated action, keep the present stem: θέλω να διαβάζω κάθε μέρα (I want to read every day) versus θέλω να διαβάσω αυτό το βιβλίο (I want to read this book). The same construction works after μπορώ να (I can), πρέπει να (I must; πρέπει never changes) and μου αρέσει να (I like to): μπορώ να πληρώσω με κάρτα;, πρέπει να φύγω. And the same forms give you the future with θα: θα πάω (I will go), θα φάμε (we will eat), explained in yesterday and tomorrow: πήγα, θα πάω.

How to learn Greek verbs efficiently

• Learn three forms at once: present, past and the form after να (πάω, πήγα, να πάω). The future is then free: θα πάω.
• Start with the irregular giants. είμαι, έχω, κάνω, πάω, λέω, βλέπω and τρώω appear in almost every conversation.
• Learn verbs in short sentences, not alone: πίνω καφέ, μένω στη Ζυρίχη, δεν καταλαβαίνω.
• Drill the endings with -άω verbs, the verb κάνω and verbs in -μαι, then review the basic verbs vocabulary list.

Frequently asked questions

What is the most common verb in Greek?

είμαι (to be) and έχω (to have), followed closely by κάνω (to do, to make), which also appears in many fixed phrases: τι κάνεις; (how are you?), κάνει κρύο (it's cold).

Why don't Greek verbs have an infinitive?

The ancient infinitive gradually disappeared and was replaced by να + verb. So where English says "to go", Greek says να πάω, να πας, να πάει, depending on who goes.

Are Greek verbs hard to learn?

The present is regular and only has two main patterns. The past takes more effort because the most frequent verbs are irregular, but there are not many of them, and you meet them every day.

Is it μιλάω or μιλώ?

Both are correct. μιλάω is more common in speech, μιλώ is a little shorter and more formal. The same goes for αγαπάω / αγαπώ and ρωτάω / ρωτώ.

These verbs are taught step by step, with audio and exercises, in our free A1 Greek course.