Principal parts

The Principal Parts of a Greek verb is a set of 6 basic forms of a given Greek verb from which all other forms can be derived. In lexicons the principal parts are usually laid out horizontally in the same order, sometimes labelled with Roman numerals.

A typical set of principal parts for the verb λύω (I loose, I destroy) is given below:


 * λύω is the lexical form. Lexicons which list the principal parts might omit the first one because that's the lexical form.
 * Where a particular form does not occur in the Greek New Testament, a lexicon might not list the form but show a dash: -


 * The 1st principal part lists the 1p singular of the Present tense active. All other present forms e.g. middle/passive can be derived from the same stem. The Imperfect is not given a separate principal part because all the forms can be derived from the stem found in the 1st principal part.
 * The Future active and middle are the 2nd principal part but note that the future passive is derived from the 6th principal part.
 * The Aorist active and middle, similarly, uses the 3rd principal part but the aorist passive is derived from the 6th principal part. This separation is necessary because the passive is sometimes not reliably derivable from the 3rd principal part.
 * In the same way, the Perfect active uses the 4th principal part but the middle/passive uses the 5th principal part.
 * The Pluperfect is a rare form but is distributed the same way as for the Perfect.