Greek verb conjugation in the present tense

Updated 28 October 2026

The six endings

Press the button to hear each form. The ending is highlighted.

• γράφωGHRAH-fo · I write
• γράφειςGHRAH-fees · you write (one person)
• γράφειGHRAH-fee · he / she writes
• γράφουμεGHRAH-foo-meh · we write
• γράφετεGHRAH-feh-teh · you write (several people, or politely)
• γράφουνGHRAH-foon · they write

The capitals in a respelling mark the stressed syllable, and gh is a soft g said without fully closing the throat (the letter γ).

What matters here

• Only the ending changes. The stem γράφ- stays, and so does the stress: γράφω [GHRAH-fo], γράφεις [GHRAH-fees] and γράφουμε [GHRAH-foo-meh] are all stressed on γρά.
• The pronoun is usually dropped. In English you can’t just say “write” and mean “I write”. In Greek γράφω on its own is a full sentence. Add the pronoun only to stress who: Εγώ γράφω. Εσύ; [eh-GHO GHRAH-fo eh-SEE], “I’m writing. And you?”
• One form, two English tenses. Greek has no separate “-ing” form in the present: γράφω means both “I write” and “I’m writing”.
• Two words for “you”. English has one “you”; Greek has two endings. γράφεις is to one person you know, γράφετε is to several people, or politely to one.
• The endings -ω, -εις, -ει, -ουμε, -ετε, -ουν are the same for many verbs. Learn them on one verb and you can conjugate dozens of others: παίζω [PEH-zo] (I play), δουλεύω [dhoo-LEH-vo] (I work), μένω [MEH-no] (I live, I stay).
• Read the endings the Greek way. ει says ee, not “ay”, and ου says oo, not “ow”. So γράφει is [GHRAH-fee], “he / she writes”, and γράφουν is [GHRAH-foon], “they write”: these two differ only by their ending.

One verb is a special case: “to be” has forms of its own. It has a page to itself: the verb είμαι.

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