English needs three verbs where Greek has one. μαθαίνω covers learn, find out and teach, and nothing in the verb itself says which is meant — the aspect does, and what follows the verb does. That, plus a participle that has walked away from the verb's meaning entirely, is what this card is for.
Principal parts
| Slot | Form |
|---|---|
| Present | μαθαίνω, μαθαίνεις, μαθαίνει, μαθαίνουμε, μαθαίνετε, μαθαίνουν(ε) |
| Imperfect | μάθαινα, μάθαινες, μάθαινε, μαθαίναμε, μαθαίνατε, μάθαιναν |
| Aorist | έμαθα, έμαθες, έμαθε, μάθαμε, μάθατε, έμαθαν |
| After θα / να | μάθω, μάθεις, μάθει, μάθουμε, μάθετε, μάθουν |
| Command | μάθε / μάθετε — imperfective μάθαινε (rare) |
| Perfect / pluperfect | έχω / είχα μάθει |
| Gerund | μαθαίνοντας |
| Participle | μαθημένος — accustomed, not "learnt" |
The -αιν- belongs to the present alone: the perfective root is bare μαθ-, which is why the aorist is έμαθα and not ×μάθησα. Its siblings behave identically — παθαίνω → έπαθα, πεθαίνω → πέθανα — and the whole family is laid out on nasal-stem verbs. The augment is the ordinary sort that exists only to carry the stress, so it drops as soon as the word grows a syllable: έμαθα but μάθαμε, μάθατε.
Three verbs in one
| Reading | Where it shows up | Typical object |
|---|---|---|
| learn, pick up | imperfective — μαθαίνω, μάθαινα, θα μαθαίνω | a language, a skill |
| find out, hear | almost always the aorist έμαθα | a ότι / πως clause, τα νέα |
| teach | any tense, plus a genitive clitic | the thing taught |
The split is aspectual, not lexical, and it is remarkably reliable. Έμαθα ελληνικά is I learnt Greek, because the object is a skill you accumulate; Έμαθα ότι φεύγεις is I heard you're leaving, because the object is a piece of news that arrived in one moment. The perfective packages the event, and news is the only one of the three readings that is genuinely momentary — which is why the aorist gravitates to it. Aspect in the past is the general version of this argument.
Μαθαίνω ελληνικά τρία χρόνια και ακόμα μπερδεύω τους αορίστους.
mathéno eliniká tría chrónia ke akóma berdhévo tus aorístus
I've been learning Greek for three years and I still mix up the aorists.
Έμαθα χθες ότι πούλησαν το μαγαζί.
ématha chthes óti púlisan to maghazí
I found out yesterday that they'd sold the shop.
The teach reading needs nothing added — no causative, no second verb. The person taught simply turns up as a weak genitive pronoun, and that one clitic flips the whole sentence round.
Μου έμαθε η γιαγιά μου να φτιάχνω φύλλο.
mu émathe i yayá mu na ftiáchno fílo
My grandmother taught me how to make filo pastry.
Ποιος σου έμαθε να παίζεις τόσο καλά;
pios su émathe na pézis tóso kalá;
Who taught you to play that well?
That genitive is the ordinary Greek indirect object rather than anything special to this verb — indirect objects covers the choice between the clitic and a full σε phrase. διδάσκω (formal) exists and belongs to institutions: a professor διδάσκει, a grandmother μαθαίνει.
Government
| Frame | Example | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| accusative | Μαθαίνω ισπανικά. | the thing learnt |
genitive clitic
| Του έμαθα ελληνικά. | the person taught |
| μαθαίνω να + dependent | Έμαθα να οδηγώ. | a skill, once and for good |
| μαθαίνω ότι / πως + clause | Έμαθα ότι γύρισε. | news |
από
| Το έμαθα από τη Μαρία. | the source of the news |
Έμαθα να κάνω σκι στα σαράντα μου.
ématha na káno ski sta saránda mu
I learnt to ski in my forties.
Το έμαθα από τη Μαρία, όχι από τον ίδιο.
to ématha apó ti María, óchi apó ton ídhio
I heard it from Maria, not from the man himself.
μαθημένος is not "learnt"
The participle has drifted clean out of the verb. μαθημένος means accustomed, used to — it describes a habit someone has settled into, never a thing that got learnt.
Είμαι μαθημένος να ξυπνάω στις έξι, δεν με πειράζει πια.
íme mathiménos na ksipnáo stis éksi, dhen me pirázi pia
I'm used to getting up at six, it doesn't bother me any more.
What μαθαίνω does not have
- A sigmatic aorist — does not exist. No ×μάθησα — the noun η μάθηση is what that shape survives as — and no augmented imperfect ×εμάθαινα: μάθαινα is proparoxytone already and needs nothing to carry the stress.
- A -μένος participle meaning "learnt" — does not exist. The slot is occupied, as above.
- A passive with a person subject — does not exist. "I was taught French at school" cannot be built out of this voice; it is the active Έμαθα γαλλικά στο σχολείο or Μου έμαθαν γαλλικά. The mediopassive μαθαίνομαι, aorist μαθεύτηκα, is alive but third-person: news gets out, and skills are acquirable (Αυτά τα πράγματα δεν μαθαίνονται).
Μαθεύτηκε αμέσως σε όλο το χωριό.
mathéftike amésos se ólo to chorió
Word got round the whole village straight away.
Set phrases
| Phrase | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Έμαθα τα νέα | I heard the news |
| Πού το έμαθες; | where did you hear that? |
| μαθαίνω απ' έξω | learn by heart |
| μαθαίνω τη δουλειά | learn the trade, be shown the ropes |
| Δεν μαθαίνει με τίποτα (informal) | he never learns |
| είμαι μαθημένος στα δύσκολα | I'm used to hard times |
| Μάθε παιδί μου γράμματα (proverbial) | get an education, child — said half in earnest |
Δεν μαθαίνει με τίποτα αυτό το παιδί.
dhen mathéni me típota aftó to pedhí
That child never learns.
Έμαθε όλο το ποίημα απ' έξω σε δύο βράδια.
émathe ólo to píima ap' ékso se dhío vrádhia
He learnt the whole poem by heart in two evenings.
Key Takeaways
- μαθαίνω · μάθαινα · έμαθα · να μάθω · μάθε / μάθετε · έχω μάθει. No ×μάθησα — the perfective root is bare μαθ-.
- Imperfective = learn, aorist + clause = found out. The tense, not the dictionary, picks the reading.
- Teaching is the same verb plus a genitive clitic: Μου έμαθε, Του έμαθα. διδάσκω (formal) is for institutions.
- μαθημένος = accustomed, never "learnt"; καλομαθημένος = spoilt.
- The mediopassive μαθεύτηκε is third-person news, not "was taught".
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Start learning Greek →Related Topics
- ξέρω (to know)A2 — ξέρω has three forms and no more — present ξέρω, imperfect ήξερα, future θα ξέρω. This card lists what it has, names every slot it leaves empty, and shows which verb fills each hole: μαθαίνω for 'find out', γνωρίζω for the formal register.
- διαβάζω (to read/study)A1 — Half of this verb's work is not reading at all: Διαβάζω για τις εξετάσεις is how you say you are studying, and σπουδάζω is not a substitute. Card gives the principal parts (διάβασα, no ε-, ζ → σ), the διαβάζω/σπουδάζω/μελετώ triple, the είμαι διαβασμένος idiom, and the frames.
- Nasal-Stem Verbs (μπαίνω, πίνω)B1 — In μαθαίνω, καταλαβαίνω, μπαίνω, πίνω and δίνω the -ν- or -αιν- belongs to the imperfective half of the verb only — it is there in μαθαίνω and μάθαινα alike, and gone from everything perfective. Drop it and the bare root underneath is the perfective stem (μάθ-, καταλάβ-, μπ-, πι-). Covers the whole family, the -ηκα aorists that look passive and are not, the causative partners in -άζω, and μαθαίνω's double life as both 'learn' and 'teach'.
- Indirect Object: Genitive vs σεB1 — The decision page for recipients — genitive clitic for pronouns (Της τηλεφώνησα), σε + accusative for full nouns (Έδωσα το βιβλίο στον Γιάννη), when each rule bends, how the two combine in clitic doubling, and why northern Greek does it with the accusative instead.
- Aspect in the Past: Imperfect vs AoristA2 — The past is where aspect bites first and hardest. Greek has two past tenses for the same verb: the imperfect (έγραφα — was writing, used to write, the background) and the aorist (έγραψα — wrote, a single completed event). The signature pattern is a long imperfect frame cut across by a sudden aorist — Διάβαζα όταν χτύπησε το τηλέφωνο — and it lines up almost exactly with the Spanish imperfect/preterite split.