Greek verbs show who is doing the action with their ending, so the pronoun ("I", "you") is often left out: εἰμί alone means "I am".
εἰμί (be): present and imperfect
In the imperfect, the older Attic 1st person singular is ἦ; ἦν is also found.
| present | imperfect | |
|---|---|---|
| I | εἰμί633 | ἦ, ἦν1k |
| you (one) | εἶ2k | ἦσθα186 |
| he, she, it | ἐστί(ν)30k | ἦν29k |
| we | ἐσμέν425 | ἦμεν261 |
| you (all) | ἐστέ235 | ἦτε73 |
| they | εἰσί(ν)8k | ἦσαν5k |
Check yourself
Read it yourselfGospel of John 8.12Open in the reader → Gospel of John 14.6Open in the reader →
Unrolling the passage…
ἐγώ εἰμι "I am" (the pronoun is added for emphasis); τὸ φῶς "the light"; τοῦ κόσμου genitive, "of the world".
Greek shown exactly as the source file gives it. ClickTap any word to look it up.
Unrolling the passage…
Three feminine nouns, each with ἡ: "the way and the truth and the life".
Greek shown exactly as the source file gives it. ClickTap any word to look it up.
- εἰμί …
- ἐγώ …
- φῶς …
- ὁδός …
- ζωή …