Every form of this verb is predictable from αγαπάω, so the paradigm is not what earns it a card. This is: when a Greek asks somebody at the table to sing a particular song, the verb is almost never τραγουδάω. It is λέω. Πες μας ένα τραγούδι is what you will hear at every table in the country, and the τραγουδάω version, while nobody would fail to understand it, is not what anybody says.
Principal parts
| Slot | Forms |
|---|---|
| Present | τραγουδάω/τραγουδώ, τραγουδάς, τραγουδάει/τραγουδά, τραγουδάμε/τραγουδούμε, τραγουδάτε, τραγουδάνε/τραγουδούν(ε) |
| Imperfect | τραγουδούσα — also τραγούδαγα (informal) |
| Aorist | τραγούδησα, τραγούδησες, τραγούδησε, τραγουδήσαμε, τραγουδήσατε, τραγούδησαν |
| Dependent | τραγουδήσω — θα / να τραγουδήσω |
| Imperative | τραγούδα / τραγουδάτε · τραγούδησε / τραγουδήστε |
| Perfect | έχω / είχα τραγουδήσει |
| Gerund | τραγουδώντας |
| Mediopassive | τραγουδιέμαι — third person in practice · aorist τραγουδήθηκα |
| -μένος participle | τραγουδισμένος, also τραγουδημένος — both far rarer than the verb |
The one place the forms bite is the aorist accent. Greek allows an accent no further back than the third syllable from the end, so the singular τραγούδησα shifts forward the moment an ending lengthens the word: τραγουδήσαμε, τραγουδήσατε. ×τραγούδησαμε is four syllables from the end and simply cannot be written; the rule is on the aorist accent. Note too the participle. Beside the predictable τραγουδημένος stands τραγουδισμένος, with -ισ- where the aorist has -ησ-; modern prose picks the -ισ- form almost every time, while τραγουδημένος is what the folk and poetic register keeps.
The song is said, not sung
Πες μας ένα τραγούδι, Θανάση, όπως παλιά.
pes mas éna traghúdhi, Thanási, ópos paliá
Sing us a song, Thanasis, like you used to.
Μας είπε ένα ρεμπέτικο και σώπασε όλο το τραπέζι.
mas ípe éna rembétiko ke sópase ólo to trapézi
He sang us a rebetiko and the whole table went quiet.
λέω covers everything you deliver from memory in front of people — a poem at the school celebration, the national anthem, the psalm in church, and, at Christmas, the carols. The children who ring your doorbell in December ask Να τα πούμε;, and the answer if somebody has beaten them to it is Μας τα είπαν άλλοι.
Να τα πούμε; — Μας τα είπαν άλλοι, ευχαριστούμε.
na ta púme; — mas ta ípan áli, efcharistúme
Shall we sing the carols? — Someone's already sung them, thanks.
Government
Intransitive by default; the accusative it does take is the thing sung, or its composer used as a shorthand. Instruments are not sung: they go with παίζω, and an instrument is never the object of τραγουδάω — ×τραγουδάω κιθάρα. Company takes με, an audience takes σε, and manner is a bare adverb — τραγουδάει ωραία, δυνατά, παράφωνα, or, informally, φάλτσα.
Τραγουδάει όλη μέρα στην κουζίνα και δεν το καταλαβαίνει καν.
traghudhái óli méra stin kuzína ke dhen to katalavéni kan
She sings all day in the kitchen without even noticing she's doing it.
Τραγουδάει μόνο Χατζιδάκι, τίποτε άλλο δεν του αρέσει.
traghudhái móno Chadzidháki, típote álo dhen tu arési
He only sings Hadjidakis, he doesn't like anything else.
Παίζει κιθάρα και τραγουδάει ταυτόχρονα, χωρίς να χάνει ρυθμό.
pézi kithára ke traghudhái taftóchrona, chorís na cháni rithmó
He plays the guitar and sings at the same time without losing the beat.
Κάθε βράδυ τραγουδάει ένα αηδόνι στη συκιά της αυλής.
káthe vrádhi traghudhái éna aidhóni sti sikiá tis avlís
A nightingale sings every evening in the fig tree in the yard.
In elevated writing the accusative widens: to sing of something is to celebrate it in verse — Ο ποιητής τραγούδησε τη θάλασσα. This is the sense that runs through the folk tradition and through nineteenth-century poetry, and it is the only place where τραγουδάω takes an abstract object.
Ο ποιητής τραγούδησε τη θάλασσα και τους ανθρώπους της.
o piitís traghúdhise ti thálasa ke tus anthrópus tis
The poet sang of the sea and its people. (literary)
τραγουδιέται
The mediopassive exists but has almost no first or second person — people are not sung. In the third person it is the natural way to say how, where or by whom a song is performed. Note what it does not say: τραγουδιέται reports the standing custom, while the aorist τραγουδήθηκε points at one occasion and usually invites an agent — Το τραγούδι τραγουδήθηκε πρώτη φορά το 1948. Take the -ι- seriously as well: this is a Β1 verb, so the mediopassive is τραγουδιέμαι and there is no ×τραγουδάμαι to fall back on, exactly as with αγαπιέμαι and μιλιέμαι.
Αυτό το τραγούδι τραγουδιέται σε κάθε βάφτιση στο νησί.
aftó to traghúdhi traghudhiéte se káthe váftisi sto nisí
That song gets sung at every christening on the island.
Set phrases
| Phrase | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Πες μας ένα τραγούδι | sing us a song |
| Να τα πούμε; | shall we sing the carols? — at the door, in December |
| τραγουδάει ωραία | has a good voice |
| τραγουδάω φάλτσα (informal) | sing off-key — παράφωνα is the neutral word |
| σιγοτραγουδάω κάτι | sing or hum something quietly |
| τραγουδάω ζωντανά | sing live |
| ο τραγουδιστής / η τραγουδίστρια | the singer |
Key Takeaways
- τραγουδάω/τραγουδώ · τραγουδούσα · τραγούδησα · τραγουδήσω · τραγούδα / τραγούδησε · έχω τραγουδήσει; mediopassive τραγουδιέμαι, participle τραγουδισμένος (beside a rarer τραγουδημένος).
- One song, on request, is λέω: Πες μας ένα τραγούδι, Να τα πούμε; τραγουδάω names the activity instead.
- The accent moves in the aorist plural: τραγούδησα but τραγουδήσαμε.
- Instruments take παίζω. The accusative after τραγουδάω is a song, a composer, or — (literary) — the thing being celebrated in verse.
- τραγουδιέται lives in the third person and states the custom: what gets sung, and where.
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- λέω (to say/tell)A1 — Four stems on one card — λέω/λες, έλεγα, είπα, πω — plus the contrast that makes this verb worth a page: Μου είπε ότι φεύγει ('he told me he is leaving') against Μου είπε να φύγω ('he told me to leave'), one word apart.
- παίζω (to play)A2 — Three -ζω verbs in one batch, three different aorists: παίζω → έπαιξα, διαβάζω → διάβασα, βάζω → έβαλα. Card gives the forms, the bare accusative that covers instruments, sports and games alike, the με-or-εναντίον question, and the slang layer (τι παίζει; δεν παίζει, παίζει να…) that παίζει has grown in the last twenty years.
- 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.