18.124 Forms of the Present Middle/Passive Participle

Read the material presented in Croy section 124. All the present middle/passive participles follow the first-second declension pattern.

As you would expect, the present system does not have separate forms for the middle and for the passive participles. Throughout the present system, all passive and middle forms are identical.

The example given below is from the verb ἔρχομαι (stem ἔρχ-) a deponent verb which takes only middle forms (but is active in meaning in English). This present middle participle would be translated into English as "going".

Note that for feminine forms, this means an unusual stress in the feminine nominative plural, which has a short ending, allowing the stress to recede to the antepenultimate syllable. Note also that in the genitive plural, the present middle/passive participle behaves like an adjective, with no special stress for this ending.

Note that for masculine nouns, the stress follows the same pattern that you saw for adjectives with antepenultimate stress (such as δίκαιος), so that there is shifting stress throughout the paradigm.

As always, the nominative and accusative forms of the neuter participles are identical.