English walk can deliver you somewhere: I walked to school reports an arrival. περπατάω does not do that job. It names the activity — feet moving, at an ordinary pace — and leaves arriving to πάω. Everything else on this card follows from that one fact, including the senses in which a car, a rumour or a shop can περπατάει.
Principal parts
| Slot | Forms | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Present | περπατάω/περπατώ, περπατάς, περπατάει/περπατά, περπατάμε/περπατούμε, περπατάτε, περπατάνε/περπατούν(ε) | -άω (informal) beside -ώ (formal) |
| Imperfect | περπατούσα — also περπάταγα (informal) | |
| Aorist | περπάτησα, περπάτησες, περπατήσαμε | the default -ησ-; ×περπάτσα is not a form |
| Dependent (θα, να) | περπατήσω | |
| Imperative | περπάτα / περπατάτε · περπάτησε / περπατήστε | imperfective · perfective |
| Perfect | έχω περπατήσει | |
| Gerund | περπατώντας | the everyday one — see below |
| Mediopassive | περπατιέται(3rd person only) | of a road: is walkable |
| Participle | περπατημένος | not "walked" — see below |
Which half of each doublet you use is register, argued on Class Β1 in the present; the -ησ- and the stress shift onto περπατήσαμε belong to the Class Β aorist.
Nothing arrives anywhere
Both of these are good Greek, and they report different events. The first is how you say you went on foot; the second says you did some walking inside the school grounds.
Χθες πήγα με τα πόδια μέχρι το γραφείο, γιατί είχε απεργία στο μετρό.
chthes pígha me ta pódhia méchri to ghrafío, yatí íche aperyía sto metró
Yesterday I walked all the way to the office, because the metro was on strike.
Περπάτησα λίγο στην αυλή του σχολείου περιμένοντας τη μικρή.
perpátisa lígho stin avlí tu scholíu periménondas ti mikrí
I walked around the school yard a bit while waiting for my daughter.
Government
The verb is not the pure intransitive the textbooks make it. It takes a bare accusative in two everyday frames, and neither of them is a destination.
| Frame | Example | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| bare accusative: extent | Περπατήσαμε δέκα χιλιόμετρα. | the distance covered on foot |
| bare accusative: person (informal) | Περπάτησέ το λίγο. | take a child, a dog, a patient for a walk |
| σε / προς / μέχρι | Περπατάω στην παραλία. | where the walking happens |
| manner adverb | Περπατάει αργά, ξυπόλυτος. | how |
Περπατήσαμε όλη τη διαδρομή μέχρι το λιμάνι και γυρίσαμε με το λεωφορείο.
perpatísame óli ti dhiadhromí méchri to limáni ke yirísame me to leoforío
We walked the whole way down to the harbour and came back by bus.
Βγάλε το μωρό έξω, περπάτησέ το λίγο να κουραστεί.
vghále to moró ékso, perpátisé to lígho na kurastí
Take the baby out, walk him around a bit so he gets tired.
Περπατάει τόσο γρήγορα που τρέχω για να τον φτάσω.
perpatái tóso ghríghora pu trécho ya na ton ftáso
He walks so fast that I have to run to catch him up.
Things that walk without legs
In the third person the verb goes figurative in three directions, all of them ordinary spoken Greek (informal): a machine still functions, an affair progresses, a product sells.
Το αυτοκίνητο είναι είκοσι χρόνων και ακόμα περπατάει.
to aftokínito íne íkosi chrónon ke akóma perpatái
The car is twenty years old and it still runs.
Πώς πάει το μαγαζί; — Περπατάει, δεν παραπονιόμαστε.
pos pái to maghazí; — perpatái, dhen paraponiómaste
How's the shop doing? — It's ticking over, we can't complain.
The mediopassive lives in the same third person and nowhere else: περπατιέται says a route is walkable, and no Greek says ×περπατιέμαι about themselves.
Ο δρόμος είναι στενός και δεν περπατιέται με καροτσάκι.
o dhrómos íne stenós ke dhen perpatiéte me karotsáki
The road is narrow and you can't walk it with a pushchair.
περπατημένος and περπάτημα
The participle went its own way: περπατημένος is not "walked" but seasoned, who has been around — and, said of a woman, it is a slur about her sexual history (informal, pejorative). Know it, do not reach for it. The deverbal noun το περπάτημα covers both the act of walking and a person's gait.
Μην ανησυχείς γι' αυτόν, είναι περπατημένος και ξέρει να τα βγάζει πέρα.
min anisichís y' aftón, íne perpatiménos ke kséri na ta vgházi péra
Don't worry about him — he's been around and he knows how to manage.
Τον αναγνώρισα από το περπάτημά του, πριν καν γυρίσει.
ton anaghnórisa apó to perpátimá tu, prin kan yirísi
I recognised him by his walk, before he even turned round.
Περπατώντας γύρισα όλη τη γειτονιά και τελικά το βρήκα.
perpatóndas yírisa óli ti yitoniá ke teliká to vríka
I went round the whole neighbourhood on foot and found it in the end.
The -οντας form is built on the gerund page; note only that Class Β gives -ώντας, always stressed.
Two neighbours are worth placing on the register scale, because they are not free swaps. βαδίζω is the same act in official and journalistic prose (formal) — βαδίζουμε προς εκλογές — and sounds stiff in a kitchen; πεζοπορώ and the noun πεζοπορία mean hiking as a sport; σεργιανάω is strolling for pleasure and carries a warm, slightly old-fashioned colour (informal). περπατάω is the unmarked word and covers all of their ground in conversation.
Set phrases
| Phrase | Meaning |
|---|---|
| πάω με τα πόδια | go on foot — the destination version |
| περπατάω στα δάχτυλα | walk on tiptoe |
| περπατάω στα τέσσερα | crawl on all fours |
| κάνω έναν περίπατο / μια βόλτα | go for a stroll |
| δεν περπατάει καλά | he can't walk properly; it isn't running well |
| περπατάει στα οκτώ (informal) | he's going on eight years old |
| Με περπατάει κάτι. | something is crawling on me |
Περπάτα στα δάχτυλα, μόλις κοιμήθηκε το μωρό.
perpáta sta dháchtila, mólis kimíthike to moró
Walk on tiptoe — the baby has just gone to sleep.
Key Takeaways
- περπατάω · περπατούσα · περπάτησα · περπατήσω · περπάτα / περπατήστε · έχω περπατήσει · περπατώντας.
- It names the activity, not the arrival: "I walked to school" is Πήγα στο σχολείο με τα πόδια. Περπάτησα στο σχολείο is fine but means you walked about inside it.
- The accusative after it is distance covered or somebody you take for a walk, never a destination.
- Third person only: a car, a business or an affair περπατάει, and a road περπατιέται. There is no first-person mediopassive.
- περπατημένος means seasoned, been around — of a woman, a slur — and το περπάτημα is both the walking and the gait.
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Start learning Greek →Related Topics
- πάω / πηγαίνω (to go)A1 — One verb with two presents: πάω is what people say, πηγαίνω is what carries the imperfect πήγαινα and the command πήγαινε. This card shows which form owns which slot, the aorist πήγα (with γ), the empty imperative slot on the πα- side, and the prepositions the verb takes.
- κοιτάω/κοιτώ (to look)A2 — One verb with two presents — κοιτάζω in Class Α and κοιτάω/κοιτώ in Class Β — sharing a single aorist κοίταξα. The eye senses against βλέπω and παρακολουθώ, the second life of the verb as 'see to, look after, get checked', and κοίτα να as a warning rather than a purpose clause.
- 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.
- Aorist: Class ΒA2 — The aorist of second-conjugation (Class Β) verbs — the contract verbs in -άω/-ώ. They are the most regular aorist in Greek: slot a linking vowel before the -σ- and add the past endings — αγάπησα, μίλησα, ρώτησα, περπάτησα. Covers the three linking-vowel families (-ησ-, -ασ-, -εσ-), the stress that rides the antepenult, and the -εύω lookalikes that are really Class Α.
- Present Tense: Class Β1 (αγαπάω/-ώ)A1 — The full present of the everyday Β1 contract verbs — αγαπάω/αγαπώ, μιλάω, ρωτάω, περπατάω, κοιτάω, ξεχνάω, περνάω — with the -άω/-ώ doublet in the 'I' and 'they' forms, the fixed -άς 'you' ending, and the crossover error ×αγαπείς that spells it as if it were Class Α.