Λέγω

λέγω (lego)

Gloss: verb, I say

Principal parts: Principal Parts: λέγω, ἐρῶ, εἶπον/εἶπα, εἴρηκα, εἴρημαι, ἐρρέθην/ἐρρήθην

Strong's 3004

Frequency: 2357


 * 9th most common word in the NT
 * should be easy but this is actually one of those complicated ones. It is classified as 2nd Aorist, meaning an irregular, or a verb where there is some modification of the root to form the present tense stem. In this case the modification is fairly big: with completely different roots *λεγ for present and imperfect and then for aorist and the rest a complicated root best remembered as ειπ.
 * It's a common word but has lots and lots of form.
 * But it's not as scary as all that if one focuses on the most common: present active forms (common in reported speech or historical present), aorist (the default form for a historical narrative) and participles (because Greek loves participles) and in the bible, it is common e.g. to hear a voice from heaven, saying....

Paradigms
Present Active Indicative

2nd Aorist Active Indicative

For the Aorist 3P pl. εἶπον is the "proper" form. εἶπαν is a form where the word has copied over a 1st Aorist ending and it is actually far more common in the NT than the proper form. It is almost as if speakers of English in the second language got tired of the irregular "swam" as the past tense of "swim" and decided to use "swimed" instead.

εἶπαν occurs more than 90 times while εἶπον some 60 times including some which are actually an alternative form of the 1P sg.