μπορώ files here by class but not by shape: it stresses its ending like every Class Β verb, and there the resemblance to its neighbours stops. In Standard Modern Greek there are no -άω doublets — the forms are μπορώ, μπορείς, μπορεί, not ×μποράω, ×μποράς, ×μπορά — the aorist belongs to a three-verb club, and two paradigm slots are simply empty. Most of what μπορώ does is owned by other pages; what lives here are its forms and the two constructions nobody else carries.
Principal parts
| Slot | Forms | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Present | μπορώ, μπορείς, μπορεί, μπορούμε, μπορείτε, μπορούν(ε) | the model Class Β2 set — one paradigm, no doublets |
| Imperfect | μπορούσα, μπορούσες, μπορούσε… | |
| Aorist | μπόρεσα, μπόρεσες, μπόρεσε, μπορέσαμε, μπορέσατε, μπόρεσαν | -εσ-, not -ησ-: ×μπόρησα |
| Dependent | μπορέσω — θα / να μπορέσω | |
| Perfect | έχω / είχα μπορέσει | |
| Gerund | μπορώντας | mainly written; common in frames such as μην μπορώντας να… |
| Imperative | not used | μπόρεσε is 3rd-person aorist, not a command; a request is Μπορείς να…; |
| Mediopassive | does not exist | no ×μπορούμαι, and no -μένος participle in modern Greek |
The aorist is the only irregular thing about the verb, and it is irregular by membership rather than by rule: μπόρεσα sits with φόρεσα and κάλεσα in the small -εσ- group, against the -ησ- of the Β1 verbs and the -ασ- of πέρασα. The list is short enough to memorise, and it is on the Class Β aorist. The empty slots have compensation elsewhere in the family: ανήμπορος ("too weak or ill to manage") is the everyday adjective the verb never grew for itself, μπορετός (literary) survives in (δεν) είναι μπορετό, and the Cretan Renaissance still had a participle proper — δυνατός και *μπορεμένος*, "strong and mighty".
Government
In its modal use, μπορώ takes να and a dependent verb, with no bare verbal complement. Modern Greek has no productive infinitive that can fill the English can/to + verb complement slot; the restricted invariant μπορέσει survives in perfect constructions such as έχω μπορέσει, not as a free complement. The separate colloquial "put up with" sense below takes a plain accusative.
Μπορώ να περάσω αύριο το μεσημέρι, αν σε βολεύει.
boró na peráso ávrio to mesiméri, an se volévi
I can come round tomorrow at midday, if that suits you.
Μπορώ να καθίσω εδώ ή περιμένεις κάποιον;
boró na kathíso edhó i periménis kápion;
Can I sit here, or are you waiting for someone?
Μην μπορώντας να κάνει αλλιώς, δέχτηκε τους όρους τους.
min boróndas na káni aliós, dhéchtike tus órus tus
Unable to do otherwise, he accepted their terms. (formal)
The rest of the modal machinery is spoken for and this card cedes it: personal μπορώ να against impersonal μπορεί να, and where the negative sits, are on impersonal πρέπει / μπορεί να; the whole past-and-conditional half — μπορούσα against μπόρεσα, and θα μπορούσα — is on possibility and permission; Μπορούσατε να…; as a softener is on the imperfect for politeness.
Δεν τον μπορώ
With a direct object in the accusative instead of a να-clause, μπορώ means stand, put up with. It is thoroughly colloquial, is especially common under negation, and the object can be a person or a thing.
Δεν τον μπορώ τον καινούριο μας γείτονα, μιλάει μόνο για τον εαυτό του.
dhen ton boró ton kenúrio mas yítona, milái móno ya ton eaftó tu
I can't stand our new neighbour, he only talks about himself. (informal)
Δεν το μπορώ το κρύο, γι' αυτό δεν πάω ποτέ βόρεια τον χειμώνα.
dhen to boró to krío, y' aftó dhen páo poté vória ton chimóna
I can't take the cold, which is why I never go north in winter. (informal)
Η γιαγιά δεν μπορεί δυο μέρες τώρα, της ανέβηκε πυρετός.
i yayá dhen borí dhio méres tóra, tis anévike piretós
Grandma has been poorly for two days now, she's running a temperature. (informal)
One more thing this verb does that none of its class-mates do: its third person singular has drifted loose of the paradigm. Μπορεί answers a question all by itself, as a complete utterance meaning maybe — at which point it is no longer the third person of anything, since there is no subject for it to agree with. That frozen μπορεί, and how it differs from a genuine third-person "he can", is the business of impersonal πρέπει / μπορεί να.
Θα έρθεις το βράδυ; — Μπορεί, εξαρτάται από τη δουλειά.
tha érthis to vrádhi; — borí, eksartáte apó ti dhuliá
Are you coming tonight? — Maybe, it depends on work.
Set phrases
| Phrase | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Μπορώ; | May I? — on its own, reaching for something |
| όσο μπορώ | as much as I can |
| ό,τι μπορώ | whatever I can |
| όποτε μπορείς | whenever you can — no hurry |
| δεν μπορώ άλλο | I've had enough; I can't take any more |
| Δεν μπορεί! | surely not! — it can't be |
| Μαζί δεν κάνουν και χώρια δεν μπορούν. | they can't live together and can't live apart |
Θα κάνω ό,τι μπορώ, αλλά θαύματα μην περιμένεις.
tha káno ó,ti boró, alá thávmata min periménis
I'll do what I can, but don't expect miracles.
Δεν μπορώ άλλο με αυτή τη δουλειά, ψάχνω από τον Σεπτέμβρη.
dhen boró álo me aftí ti dhuliá, psáchno apó ton Septémvri
I can't take this job any longer — I've been job-hunting since September.
Key Takeaways
- μπορώ · μπορούσα · μπόρεσα · μπορέσω · έχω μπορέσει. No imperative in use, and no mediopassive or -μένος participle in modern Greek; the mainly written gerund μπορώντας is live.
- In Standard Modern Greek there is no -άω doublet: μπορείς and μπορεί, not ×μποράς or ×μποράει — this is the Β2 model paradigm.
- The aorist takes -εσ- (μπόρεσα, with φόρεσα and κάλεσα), never ×μπόρησα.
- In the modal use, a verbal complement is να
- dependent. In colloquial Δεν τον μπορώ, a plain accusative object gives the meaning "can't stand".
- Bare δεν μπορώ can mean I'm not well in a health context; elsewhere it may leave an understood action unspoken.
Related Topics
- θέλω (to want)A2 — The full inventory of θέλω — present, the ή- imperfect ήθελα, the rare aorist θέλησα that does not normally render plain 'I wanted', the slots this verb leaves empty, its four complement frames, and the politeness ladder θέλω → ήθελα → θα ήθελα.
- ξέρω (to know)A2 — ξέρω has a present stem and the imperfect ήξερα, but no perfective stem. This card maps its inflectional gaps and the verbs that fill them: μαθαίνω for 'find out', γνωρίζω for meeting or acquaintance and for formal-leaning informational 'know'.
- Principal Parts: Complete IndexA2 — A consolidated index of the principal parts of 151 frequent Modern Greek verbs, including defective and register-limited paradigms.
- Present Tense: Class Β2 (μπορώ)A2 — The full present of the pure Β2 anchor μπορώ — μπορώ, μπορείς, μπορεί, μπορούμε, μπορείτε, μπορούν — and the -ώ/-είς/-εί set also used by θεωρώ and καλώ. Some lexical verbs additionally waver into a live -άω set, notably οδηγώ/οδηγάω and προχωρώ/προχωράω, so the paradigm and a verb's complete inventory must be kept distinct.
- Possibility and Permission: μπορεί / μπορώA2 — The past and conditional half of μπορώ: μπορούσα ('was able to', a standing past ability) against the aorist μπόρεσα ('managed to'), and the conditional θα μπορούσα, which does the work of English 'could' — hypothetical ability, suggestions, polite requests, reproach — before layering into θα μπορούσα να είχα… ('I could have…').
- ξέρω να vs μπορώ ναB1 — Use ξέρω να when learned know-how is the point and μπορώ να for ability, circumstances, possibility, or permission, while allowing their natural overlap in skill contexts.