Subjunctive (Ancient Greek)

The subjunctive mood (Greek ὑποτακτική (hupotaktikḗ) "for arranging underneath", from ὑποτάσσω (hupotássō) "I arrange beneath") along with the indicative, optative, and imperative, is one of the four moods of the Ancient Greek verb. It can be used both in the meaning "should" (the jussive subjunctive) and in the meaning "may" (the potential subjunctive).

When used in its jussive sense, the main uses of the subjunctive are these:

The potential subjunctive together with the particle ἄν (án) is used in clauses like the following:

The potential subjunctive without ἄν (án) can refer to an event or situation in the future in uses such as the following:

In a past time context either the subjunctive or the optative mood may be used in such sentences:

Without an introductory verb, but preceded by μή (mḗ) "not", the subjunctive can also be used for:

The two moods subjunctive and optative together cover most of the areas covered by the Latin subjunctive. However, one area for which the subjunctive is used in Latin but neither mood is used in Greek is for counterfactual situations in the present or past (e.g. "it would be happening (but isn't)", "it would have happened (but didn't)", "I should have done it (but didn't)" etc.). For this area of meaning the imperfect and aorist indicative tenses are used in Ancient Greek.

The subjunctive is still used today in Modern Greek, whereas the optative has died out.

The subjunctive almost always has the letters ω (ō) or η (ē) in the ending. It exists in three tenses only: the present, the aorist, and the perfect. (The perfect is, however, rarely used.) The difference between the present and aorist subjunctive is one of aspect rather than of time: the present subjunctive primarily refers to situations, whereas the aorist describes events (whether single or repeated).

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