συνεχίζω (to continue) | Greek Grammar

You will meet this verb's mediopassive before you meet the verb: Συνεχίζεται is what a Greek serial puts on screen where English puts To be continued, and what a news site puts under a developing story. That one form does most of συνεχίζω's public work, and it behaves as though the situation were carrying on by itself.

Principal parts

Slot	Form	Note
Present	συνεχίζω, -ζεις, -ζει, -ζουμε, -ζετε, -ζουν(ε)	continue, carry on, resume
Imperfect	συνέχιζα	accent retracts to -νέ-
Aorist	συνέχισα	same retraction; ζ → σ
After θα / να	συνεχίσω, -σεις, -σει, -σουμε, -σετε, -σουν	accent forward again
Command	συνέχισε / συνεχίστε	carry on, go on
Perfect / pluperfect	έχω / είχα συνεχίσει	one -ει form for both
Gerund	συνεχίζοντας	continuing, going on to
Mediopassive	συνεχίζεται, συνεχίστηκε, να συνεχιστεί	third person only
Present participle	συνεχιζόμενος(formal)	ongoing, still running

Two slots are empty, and both are worth naming:

A -μένος participle — does not exist in ordinary use. Where English wants continued, Greek uses συνεχιζόμενος (still going) or the ordinary adjective συνεχής "continuous, unbroken".
A first- or second-person mediopassive — does not exist. No συνεχίζομαι, no συνεχίζεσαι. The mediopassive is about events, works and situations, never about a speaker.

The ε in συνέχισα is not an augment

This one looks like a trap and is not. συνεχίζω is built on συνεχής "continuous", which is συν- plus the stem of έχω — so the ε sitting between the prefix and the ending is part of the word, present in every single form, including the present συνεχίζω. Nothing is inserted in the past; the accent merely retracts onto a vowel that was always there.

Compare a verb with a genuine internal augment: επιστρέφω → επέστρεψα, where the ι of επι- is displaced by an ε that appears only in the past. That alternation, and where it lands, is on the internal augment. συνεχίζω has nothing of the kind, which is good news: the aorist and the dependent differ from the present only in stress and in the ζ/σ swap.

Συνέχισα από εκεί που σταμάτησα την προηγούμενη φορά.

sinéchisa apó ekí pu stamátisa tin proighúmeni forá

I picked up from where I'd left off last time.

Government

συνεχίζω να is the frame you will use most, and its dependent is always imperfective: continuing is by definition something in progress, so the complement cannot be packaged as one completed act. συνεχίζω belongs to the same phase-verb family as αρχίζω and σταματάω, and the reasoning behind the whole family is on να with the present stem.

Συνεχίζω να πηγαίνω γυμναστήριο τρεις φορές την εβδομάδα.

sinechízo na piyéno yimnastírio tris forés tin evdhomádha

I'm still going to the gym three times a week.

Συνέχισε να τον παίρνεις τηλέφωνο μέχρι να απαντήσει.

sinéchise na ton pérnis tiléfono méchri na apandísi

Keep ringing him until he picks up.

Beyond that it takes a plain accusative object, and it is perfectly happy with no complement at all — which is how it works as an encouragement.

Συνέχισε τη δουλειά σου, θα τα πούμε μετά.

sinéchise ti dhuliá su, tha ta púme metá

Get on with your work, we'll talk later.

Συνέχισε, σε ακούω.

sinéchise, se akúo

Go on, I'm listening.

One verb covers two things English separates. συνεχίζω is both carry on without stopping and pick up again after a break — Greek does not need a second verb for the resumption, the way it reaches for ξαναρχίζω only when something starts over from the beginning.

💡

συνεχίζω and σταματάω mark the two ends of one axis, but they do not mirror each other grammatically — both take an imperfective dependent. Συνεχίζω να διαβάζω keeps an activity running; Σταμάτησα να διαβάζω breaks the same activity off. Either way the complement names something that was in progress, and that is what the aspect is reporting — not whether the main verb starts, stops or sustains it.

Συνεχίζεται — the form that runs itself

The mediopassive is where συνεχίζω differs most from English continue. Greek does not say that a crisis or a series continues; it says the crisis is continued — and means nothing at all about who is continuing it. This is the standard way to put an ongoing situation on the page.

Η σειρά συνεχίζεται την επόμενη Τετάρτη στις εννιά.

i sirá sinechízete tin epómeni Tetárti stis eniá

The series continues next Wednesday at nine.

Συνεχίστηκε η συζήτηση και μετά το διάλειμμα.

sinechístike i sizítisi ke metá to dhiálima

The discussion carried on after the break as well.

Η συνεχιζόμενη ανομβρία έχει αδειάσει τα φράγματα.

i sinechizómeni anomvría échi adhiási ta frághmata

The ongoing drought has emptied the reservoirs. (formal — newspaper register)

Set phrases

Phrase	Meaning
Συνεχίζεται	To be continued
Η ζωή συνεχίζεται	Life goes on
Και συνεχίζουμε	And on we go — a presenter moving to the next item
συνεχίζω κανονικά	carry on as normal, as if nothing had happened
συνεχίζω από εκεί που σταμάτησα	pick up where I left off
συνεχίζω τις προσπάθειες	keep trying, keep at it
Συνέχισε έτσι!	Keep it up!

Συνεχίζουμε κανονικά, δεν αλλάζει τίποτα στο πρόγραμμα.

sinechízume kanoniká, dhen alázi típota sto próghrama

We're carrying on as normal, nothing in the schedule changes.

Key Takeaways

συνεχίζω · συνέχιζα · συνέχισα · να συνεχίσω · συνέχισε / συνεχίστε · έχω συνεχίσει · συνεχίζοντας.
The ε of συνέχισα is stem material (συν- + the έχ- of έχω), not an augment — it is there in the present too.
συνεχίζω να always takes an imperfective dependent: what continues is in progress by definition.
The mediopassive is third person only: συνεχίζεται, συνεχίστηκε, να συνεχιστεί — and συνεχιζόμενος (formal) for "ongoing".
No -μένος participle. The adjective for "continuous" is συνεχής.

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