Modern Greek looks as though it has one active participle — the invariable gerund in -οντας. It actually has three forms living off the same ancient stem, and the other two decline. This page takes them from the verb's side: how a verb produces them, what they mean, and how they behave in a sentence. Their shape as adjectives — the paradigm, the hidden -οντ- in του ενδιαφέροντος, the everyday survivors like το μέλλον — is the business of participial adjectives in -ων / -ουσα / -ον, and this page will not repeat it.
One system, three descendants
Ancient Greek built its present active participle on a stem in -οντ- (γράφων, γράφοντος, γράφοντα) and its present middle participle on a different suffix altogether, -μενος (γραφόμενος). Modern Greek kept the -οντ- stem twice over and the -μενος suffix once — three forms, two ancestries.
| Form | Shape | Declines? | Job |
|---|---|---|---|
| gerund | -οντας / -ώντας | no | modifies the verb — everyday |
| learned active | -ων / -ουσα / -ον | yes | modifies a noun — (formal) |
| middle | -όμενος / -ούμενος | yes | modifies a noun — (formal), and everyday in a long list of survivors |
The first two are not cousins but the same word. On the standard account, the modern -οντας is the ancient masculine accusative singular -οντα with a final -ς picked up by analogy: the participle stopped agreeing, froze in one case, and became an adverb. That is why γράφοντας and ο γράφων look so alike, and why one of them can never sit on a noun while the other can never sit on a verb.
Οι εργαζόμενοι στο νοσοκομείο απεργούν από τη Δευτέρα.
i erghazómeni sto nosokomío aperghún apó ti dheftéra
The hospital staff have been on strike since Monday.
Building the active -ων
Take the present stem and add -ων (masculine), -ουσα (feminine), -ον (neuter). Class Β verbs contract, giving -ών / -ούσα / -ούν. The accent stays where the present puts it, except that the Β-class forms carry it on the ending.
| Verb | Masc. | Fem. | Neut. | Where you meet it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ισχύω (be in force) | ισχύων | ισχύουσα | ισχύον | ο ισχύων νόμος |
| υπάρχω (exist) | υπάρχων | υπάρχουσα | υπάρχον | η υπάρχουσα κατάσταση |
| τρέχω (run, be current) | τρέχων | τρέχουσα | τρέχον | ο τρέχων μήνας |
| συμμετέχω (take part) | συμμετέχων | συμμετέχουσα | συμμετέχον | οι συμμετέχοντες |
| επικρατώ (prevail) | επικρατών | επικρατούσα | επικρατούν | η επικρατούσα άποψη |
Ο ισχύων νόμος δεν προβλέπει τίποτα για τέτοιες περιπτώσεις.
o ischíon nómos dhen provlépi típota ya téties periptósis
The law as it stands makes no provision for cases like this.
Όλοι οι επιβαίνοντες στο πλοίο μεταφέρθηκαν με ασφάλεια στη στεριά.
óli i epivénondes sto plío metaférthikan me asfália sti steriá
Everyone on board the ship was brought safely ashore.
That second sentence shows the class earning its keep. News Greek uses the masculine plural of these participles as a ready-made agent noun: οι επιβαίνοντες (those on board), οι συμμετέχοντες (the participants), οι υπογράφοντες (the signatories), οι διαμένοντες (the residents). Everyday speech says αυτοί που ήταν μέσα; a news bulletin says οι επιβαίνοντες, and one word does the work of four.
The middle participle in -όμενος: the living half
Now the form that matters most, because it is the one you meet daily. Take the mediopassive stem and add -όμενος / -όμενη / -όμενο; contract verbs of the -ώ / -είς type give -ούμενος (ζητούμενος, θεωρούμενος, κατηγορούμενος).
| Verb | Participle | Means | Register |
|---|---|---|---|
| έπομαι (follow) | επόμενος | next | everyday |
| προηγούμαι (precede) | προηγούμενος | previous | everyday |
| έρχομαι (come) | ερχόμενος | coming, next | everyday |
| εργάζομαι (work) | εργαζόμενος | employee, working person | everyday |
| λέγομαι (be called) | λεγόμενος | so-called | everyday / journalistic |
| εισέρχομαι (come in) | τα εισερχόμενα | incoming, inbox | everyday |
| ενδιαφέρομαι (be interested) | ενδιαφερόμενος | interested party | (formal, administrative) |
| κατηγορούμαι (be accused) | κατηγορούμενος | the accused, defendant | (legal), everyday in news |
Η ερχόμενη εβδομάδα θα είναι δύσκολη, έχουμε τρεις παραδόσεις.
i erchómeni evdhomádha tha íne dhískoli, échume tris paradhósis
Next week is going to be rough — we've got three deadlines.
Έχω τριακόσια αδιάβαστα μηνύματα στα εισερχόμενα.
écho triakósia adhiávasta minímata sta iserchómena
I've got three hundred unread messages in my inbox.
Ο κατηγορούμενος αρνήθηκε τα πάντα και ζήτησε αναβολή.
o katighorúmenos arníthike ta pánda ke zítise anavolí
The defendant denied everything and asked for an adjournment.
Η λεγόμενη κρίση των μεσαίων στρωμάτων δεν είναι κάτι καινούριο.
i leghómeni krísi ton meséon stromáton dhen íne káti kenúrio
The so-called squeezed-middle crisis is nothing new.
Here is the difference in vitality that most treatments miss. The active -ων is a closed list — you learn its members and never coin one. The middle -όμενος is the corner of the system that still gets used: official, technical and journalistic Greek forms it readily from verbs with a mediopassive, which is why phrases like τα διακινούμενα προϊόντα ("the goods in circulation") or τα εξεταζόμενα σενάρια ("the scenarios under consideration") read as ordinary prose rather than as quotations from a museum.
-όμενος is a process, -μένος is a result
The two endings sit one letter apart in a learner's memory and a world apart in meaning. -όμενος presents the action as going on; the -μένος participle presents it as finished. A handful of pairs makes the split unforgettable, because in each one the two words are ordinary vocabulary with unrelated English translations.
| Verb | -όμενος (going on) | -μένος (done) |
|---|---|---|
| κρατώ | ο κρατούμενος — the detainee | κρατημένο — booked, reserved |
| αναπτύσσω | αναπτυσσόμενη χώρα — developing | αναπτυγμένη / ανεπτυγμένη χώρα — developed |
| εξετάζω | η εξεταζόμενη περίπτωση — under review | εξετασμένος — checked over |
| χρησιμοποιώ | το χρησιμοποιούμενο σύστημα — in use | χρησιμοποιημένος — used, second-hand |
Οι αναπτυσσόμενες χώρες πλήττονται πρώτες από την κλιματική αλλαγή.
i anaptisómenes chóres plítonde prótes apó tin klimatikí alayí
Developing countries are hit first by climate change.
It is still a verb: the participle heads a phrase
This is the property that makes these forms worth a page in the Verbs section rather than the Adjectives one. A learned participle keeps the verb's complements: objects, prepositional phrases, adverbs, agents. The whole phrase then behaves as a single modifier, and in careful written Greek it is normally packed between the article and the noun — a slot English has no way of filling.
Τα προτεινόμενα από την επιτροπή μέτρα ξεσήκωσαν θύελλα αντιδράσεων.
ta protinómena apó tin epitropí métra ksesíkosan thíela andidhráseon
The measures proposed by the committee provoked a storm of protest.
Το μέτρο αφορά μόνο τους εργαζομένους στον δημόσιο τομέα.
to métro aforá móno tus erghazoménus ston dhimósio toméa
The measure applies only to those working in the public sector.
Two details in that pair. The agent phrase από την επιτροπή is the ordinary passive agent, sitting inside the article–noun bracket exactly as it would after a finite passive verb. And in the second sentence the participle is in the accusative plural εργαζομένους while its own complement στον δημόσιο τομέα keeps its own case: the participle agrees outwards, with the noun it describes, and governs inwards, like a verb.
Worth noting about the oblique forms: careful written Greek keeps the inherited accent shift, so the genitive plural is των εργαζομένων and the accusative plural τους εργαζομένους, with the stress on the -μέ-. You will also see των εργαζόμενων in print, but editors correct it. Contrast the everyday -μένος participle, whose accent never moves at all.
Negation: μη, not δεν
A participle is not a finite verb, so δεν has no business in front of it. The negator is μη, written without the ν — the same μη that negates adjectives (οι μη κερδοσκοπικές οργανώσεις, "non-profit organisations"). The resulting compounds are so standard in official and financial Greek that they read as single vocabulary items: τα μη εξυπηρετούμενα δάνεια (non-performing loans), οι μη εισηγμένες στο χρηματιστήριο εταιρείες (companies not listed on the exchange), οι μη δικαιούμενοι (those not entitled).
Τα μη εξυπηρετούμενα δάνεια παραμένουν το μεγάλο πρόβλημα των τραπεζών.
ta mi eksipiretúmena dhánia paraménun to meghálo próvlima ton trapezón
Non-performing loans remain the banks' big problem.
Common Mistakes
1. Building an active -ων participle from a deponent verb. εργάζομαι has no active forms at all, so it cannot have an active participle; the only participle it has is the middle one.
❌ Οι εργάζοντες ζήτησαν αύξηση δέκα τοις εκατό.
Incorrect — εργάζομαι is mediopassive, so its participle is εργαζόμενοι.
✅ Οι εργαζόμενοι ζήτησαν αύξηση δέκα τοις εκατό.
i erghazómeni zítisan áfksisi dhéka tis ekató
The workers asked for a ten per cent rise.
2. Using the active -ων where the noun is on the receiving end. -ων names the one doing it; measures do not propose, they get proposed.
❌ Η κυβέρνηση ανακοίνωσε τα προτείνοντα μέτρα για την ενέργεια.
Incorrect for this meaning — τα προτείνοντα would be the things that do the proposing; measures that are proposed are τα προτεινόμενα.
✅ Η κυβέρνηση ανακοίνωσε τα προτεινόμενα μέτρα για την ενέργεια.
i kivérnisi anakínose ta protinómena métra ya tin enéryia
The government announced the measures it is proposing on energy.
3. Using -μένος for something still in progress. English developing and developed are one letter apart too, and the Greek pair follows the process/result split exactly.
❌ Οι αναπτυγμένες χώρες της Αφρικής χρειάζονται στήριξη.
Incorrect for this meaning — αναπτυγμένος names the finished result ('developed'); a country still in the process is αναπτυσσόμενη.
✅ Οι αναπτυσσόμενες χώρες της Αφρικής χρειάζονται στήριξη.
i anaptisómenes chóres tis Afrikís chriázonde stíriksi
The developing countries of Africa need support.
4. Negating a participle with δεν. δεν attaches to finite verbs; a participle takes μη.
❌ Οι τράπεζες δεν μπορούν να εισπράξουν τα δεν εξυπηρετούμενα δάνεια.
Incorrect — a participle is negated with μη: τα μη εξυπηρετούμενα δάνεια.
✅ Οι τράπεζες δεν μπορούν να εισπράξουν τα μη εξυπηρετούμενα δάνεια.
i trápezes dhen borún na ispráksun ta mi eksipiretúmena dhánia
The banks can't collect on the non-performing loans.
Key Takeaways
- Three ancient participles survive: the invariable gerund -οντας and the declined active -ων / -ουσα / -ον, both from the -οντ- stem, plus the declined middle -όμενος, from the separate ancient suffix -μενος. The gerund is the active participle frozen in the ancient accusative.
- The active -ων is a closed list used to modify nouns in (formal) Greek; news Greek turns its masculine plural into agent nouns — οι επιβαίνοντες, οι συμμετέχοντες, οι υπογράφοντες.
- The middle -όμενος / -ούμενος is the living half: still formed readily in official and technical prose, and already lexicalised in επόμενος, προηγούμενος, ερχόμενος, εργαζόμενοι, λεγόμενος, εισερχόμενα, κατηγορούμενος.
- -όμενος is a process, -μένος is a result: ο κρατούμενος (detainee) against κρατημένο (booked); αναπτυσσόμενη against αναπτυγμένη.
- These participles keep the verb's complements and sit as a whole phrase between article and noun (τα προτεινόμενα από την επιτροπή μέτρα), agreeing outwards and governing inwards.
- They negate with μη, not δεν: τα μη εξυπηρετούμενα δάνεια.
- Read them; do not coin them. The everyday equivalent is a που clause: ο νόμος που ισχύει.
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Start learning Greek →Related Topics
- Participial Adjectives in -ων / -ουσα / -ονC1 — The learned present-active-participle class — ενδιαφέρων / ενδιαφέρουσα / ενδιαφέρον, μέλλων, παρών, ο διευθύνων σύμβουλος — with its -οντ- oblique stem (του ενδιαφέροντος), the everyday survivors like το μέλλον and το περιβάλλον, and an honest account of a register you should recognise but rarely build yourself.
- The Gerund in -ονταςB1 — How to build Greek's one everyday active participle: the imperfective stem plus -οντας (γράφοντας, τρέχοντας) or, for Class Β verbs, -ώντας (μιλώντας, αγαπώντας) — why it is invariable, why the fixed accent makes -οντας forms proparoxytone and -ώντας forms paroxytone, which verbs simply have no gerund at all, and how έχοντας + απαρέμφατο fills the gap left by the missing perfective gerund.
- Participial and Genitive-Absolute SurvivalsC1 — The high-register participial connectors of written Greek — συμπεριλαμβανομένου του ΦΠΑ, εξαιρουμένων των αργιών, λαμβανομένου υπόψη, δεδομένου ότι, δεδομένης της κατάστασης, προκειμένου να, τηρουμένων των αναλογιών — read as what they are: frozen genitive absolutes, an ancient construction that let a participial phrase carry its OWN subject. How to parse them, the one agreement rule that is still live inside them, the προκειμένου να / πρόκειται να trap, and the everyday Greek each one translates into.