Active and Mediopassive Voice | Greek Grammar

Every Greek verb belongs to one of two voices, and — this is the part that surprises English speakers — the voice is written into the ending of the verb itself, not signalled by a helper word. English builds its passive out of two pieces: an auxiliary and a participle (is written, was seen). Greek does the whole job by swapping the tail of the verb: πλένω (I wash) → πλένομαι (I wash myself / I am washed). One word does what English needs two or three for.

The two voices at a glance

The active voice ends in -ω in the first person singular of the present: γράφω (I write), πλένω (I wash), αγαπώ (I love). The subject does something, usually to something else.

The mediopassive voice — one label for a range of meanings — ends in -ομαι: γράφομαι, πλένομαι, αγαπιέμαι. The subject is no longer a plain doer: it may be the receiver of the action, or acting on itself, or two subjects acting on each other.

Verb	Active (-ω)	Mediopassive (-ομαι)
wash	πλένω — I wash (something)	πλένομαι — I wash myself
write	γράφω — I write	γράφομαι — I am written / registered
dress	ντύνω — I dress (someone)	ντύνομαι — I get dressed
love	αγαπώ — I love	αγαπιέμαι — I am loved

Πλένω το αυτοκίνητο κάθε Σάββατο το πρωί.

pléno to aftokínito káthe Sávato to proí

I wash the car every Saturday morning.

Το χειμώνα πλένομαι με ζεστό νερό.

to chimóna plénome me zestó neró

In winter I wash (myself) with hot water.

What the mediopassive actually does — five jobs

The single -ομαι ending is doing the work that several different English constructions do. It helps to see them as five overlapping jobs of one form.

1. Passive — the subject is acted upon

Πώς γράφεται το επίθετό σου;

pos ghráfete to epíthetó su;

How is your surname spelled? (lit. written)

Αυτό το τυρί δεν τρώγεται, έχει χαλάσει.

aftó to tirí dhen tróyete, échi chalási

This cheese can't be eaten — it's gone off.

Where a passive names its agent, Greek uses από ("by"): χτίστηκε από τον παππού μου (it was built by my grandfather). That corner of the system lives on the passive with από.

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Don't reach for είμαι + a participle to translate the English passive. Το γράμμα είναι γραμμένο is perfectly good Greek, but it describes a finished state ("the letter is (already) written"), not the ongoing action. For "the letter is being written / gets written" you need the -εται ending: το γράμμα γράφεται. The ending carries the action; the participle carries the result.

2. Reflexive — the subject acts on itself

Ντύνομαι γρήγορα το πρωί γιατί δεν προλαβαίνω.

dínome ghríghora to proí yatí dhen prolavéno

I get dressed quickly in the morning because I'm short on time.

Here English needs a reflexive pronoun (dress myself) or an intransitive verb (get dressed); Greek just uses the -ομαι form. Full detail is on reflexive meaning.

3. Reciprocal — two subjects act on each other

Τα δύο αδέρφια αγαπιούνται πάρα πολύ.

ta dhío adhérfia aghapiúnde pára polí

The two siblings love each other very much.

Γνωριστήκαμε πέρσι σ' ένα ταξίδι.

ghnoristíkame pérsi s' éna taksídhi

We met (each other) last year on a trip.

English marks this with each other; Greek folds it into the plural -ονται / -όμαστε ending. See reciprocal meaning.

4. Middle — the subject acts in its own interest

Ετοιμάζομαι να βγω, δώσε μου πέντε λεπτά.

etimázome na vgho, dhóse mu pénde leptá

I'm getting ready to go out — give me five minutes.

The "middle" is the subtlest: the action loops back to benefit or involve the subject, without being strictly reflexive. This shading is covered in middle-voice semantics.

5. Deponents — verbs that live only in the mediopassive

Some of the most common Greek verbs have no active form at all. They wear the -ομαι ending but their meaning is perfectly active in English. These are called deponents.

Έρχομαι σε δέκα λεπτά, μη φεύγεις!

érchome se dhéka leptá, mi févyis!

I'm coming in ten minutes — don't leave!

Κάθομαι όλη μέρα μπροστά στον υπολογιστή.

káthome óli méra brostá ston ipoloyistí

I sit all day in front of the computer.

There is nothing passive or reflexive about coming or sitting — the -ομαι ending here is simply the only form the verb has. Other everyday deponents are θυμάμαι (I remember), λυπάμαι (I'm sorry), γίνομαι (I become), χρειάζομαι (I need). The full inventory is on the deponent verbs page.

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When you meet a new -ομαι verb, don't assume it's a passive. Ask: does an active -ω version exist? If yes (πλένω/πλένομαι), the -ομαι form carries one of the passive/reflexive/reciprocal/middle meanings. If no active exists (έρχομαι, θυμάμαι), it's a deponent and simply means what it means.

Why this is so different from English

English keeps the verb fixed and changes the scaffolding around it: build → is built → was built → will be built. The verb build never changes; the auxiliary be carries the voice. Greek does the opposite — the auxiliary stays out of it and the verb's own ending changes. This is why there is no single "passive marker" to learn: voice is fused with person, number and tense into one ending, and you learn the whole mediopassive ending set as a package.

That package is genuinely a second set of endings to memorise — it looks nothing like the active one (-ομαι, -εσαι, -εται, -όμαστε, -εστε, -ονται against active -ω, -εις, -ει, -ουμε, -ετε, -ουν). Learning them is the subject of the mediopassive personal endings; the corresponding active set is on the active endings. This page is only the map: the complete voice system — how each of the five jobs is formed across every tense — is laid out in the Passive & Voice overview.

Common Mistakes

1. Inventing an active form for a deponent. Verbs like έρχομαι and κάθομαι have no -ω form; the -ομαι is the verb.

❌ Έρχω αύριο το βράδυ.

Incorrect — έρχομαι is a deponent; there is no active ×έρχω.

✅ Έρχομαι αύριο το βράδυ.

érchome ávrio to vrádhi

I'm coming tomorrow evening.

2. Dropping the mediopassive ending on a deponent. The greeting τι γίνεται; needs the full -εται — the bare form γίνει can't stand alone as a main verb (it only appears after θα/να).

❌ Τι γίνει, φίλε; Πάει καιρός.

Incorrect — the present of the deponent γίνομαι is γίνεται; bare γίνει can't head a sentence.

✅ Τι γίνεται, φίλε; Πάει καιρός.

ti yínete, fíle; pái kerós

How's it going, mate? It's been a while.

3. Spelling the mediopassive ending with -ε instead of -αι. The endings -μαι, -σαι, -ται, -νται are always written with αι, even though it sounds like plain -ε.

❌ Χρειάζομε λίγη βοήθεια με τα ελληνικά μου.

Incorrect spelling — the 1sg mediopassive ending is -ομαι: χρειάζομαι.

✅ Χρειάζομαι λίγη βοήθεια με τα ελληνικά μου.

chriázome líyi voíthia me ta eliniká mu

I need a little help with my Greek.

4. Reusing an active ending in the mediopassive set. The whole ending set is different: 2sg is -εσαι (ντύνεσαι), not the active-style ×-εσε.

❌ Ντύνεσε πάντα πολύ κομψά.

Incorrect — the 2sg mediopassive ending is -εσαι: ντύνεσαι.

✅ Ντύνεσαι πάντα πολύ κομψά.

dínese pánda polí kompsá

You always dress very elegantly.

Key Takeaways

Greek has two voices, marked by the verb ending: active -ω, mediopassive -ομαι.
The mediopassive is one form doing five jobs: passive, reflexive, reciprocal, middle, and deponent.
Unlike English, there is no "be + participle" — the ending changes (πλένω → πλένομαι).
Deponents (έρχομαι, κάθομαι, θυμάμαι) have only the -ομαι form but mean something active.
The endings themselves are a separate set to learn; the full system lives in the Passive & Voice subgroup.

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