# Mi-verbs

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The **-mi verbs** are a class of [athematic](/source/Athematic) verbs in the [Proto-Indo-European language](/source/Proto-Indo-European_language). The name derives from the first-person singular form of the verbs in the present indicative active. The person marker is -mi, e.g. εἰμί (*ei**mí***, I am), δίδωμι (*dídō**mi***, I give), φημί (*phē**mí***, I say) etc. The [conjugation](/source/Grammatical_conjugation) of mi-verbs differs from the conjugation of the much more common, thematic, **omega-verbs** (-ω, *-ō*). Mi-verbs were “regularised” (transformed to their -o counterparts, or replaced altogether) in the [Koine](/source/Koine) era and the transformation was almost complete by [Byzantine](/source/Byzantine_Empire) times, with some vestiges of the -mi conjugation surviving only in the [passive voice](/source/Passive_voice) in [Modern Greek](/source/Modern_Greek).

Mi-verbs are an extremely ancient feature of Proto-Indo-European grammar. [Sanskrit](/source/Sanskrit) verbs are exclusively -mi verbs, all [Latin](/source/Latin) verbs except the forms *sum* and *inquam* are -o verbs, whereas [Ancient Greek](/source/Ancient_Greek) verbs could be either. A typical example used to illustrate this is the Sanskrit verb *bhárami*, Latin *fero*, Greek φέρω, *phérō* (“I bear”).

The most common verb is the [copula](/source/Copula_(linguistics)), and therefore it has survived longest, just as in Latin the only [Anglo-Saxon](/source/Old_English) mi-verb is the copula *eom*, nowadays shortened to *am*. The verb "give" is also very common and is, together with the copula, still a mi-verb in modern [Slavic languages](/source/Slavic_languages) (for example, the [Czech](/source/Czech_language) word *dávám*).

## External links

- [Verbs ending in -mi](http://www.vroma.org/~abarker/tschaptwensixseveight.html)

## Sources

- Greek Grammar, Herbert Weir Smyth. Harvard University Press. (1920) 0-574-36250-0

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