Editing Infinitive (section)

==Hellenic languages==

===Ancient Greek===
{{Main|Infinitive (Ancient Greek)}}
In [[Ancient Greek]] the infinitive has four tenses (present, future, aorist, perfect) and three voices (active, middle, passive). Present and perfect have the same infinitive for both middle and passive, while future and aorist have separate middle and passive forms.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
! tense !! active !! middle !! passive
|-
! present
| {{lang|grc|παιδεύειν}}
| colspan="2" | {{lang|grc|παιδεύεσθαι}}
|-
! future
| {{lang|grc|παιδεύσειν}} || {{lang|grc|παιδεύσεσθαι}} || {{lang|grc|παιδευθήσεσθαι}}
|-
! aorist
| {{lang|grc|παιδεῦσαι}} || {{lang|grc|παιδεύσᾰσθαι}} || {{lang|grc|παιδευθῆναι}}
|-
! perfect
| {{lang|grc|πεπαιδευκέναι}}
| colspan="2" | {{lang|grc|πεπαιδεῦσθαι}}
|}

[[Thematic vowel|Thematic verbs]] form present active infinitives by adding to the stem the thematic vowel {{lang|grc|-ε-}} and the infinitive ending {{lang|grc|-εν}}, and contracts to {{lang|grc|-ειν}}, e.g., {{lang|grc|παιδεύ-ειν}}.  Athematic verbs, and perfect actives and aorist passives, add the suffix {{lang|grc|-ναι}} instead, e.g., {{lang|grc|διδό-ναι}}.  In the middle and passive, the present middle infinitive ending is {{lang|grc|-σθαι}}, e.g., {{lang|grc|δίδο-σθαι}} and most tenses of thematic verbs add an additional {{lang|grc|-ε-}} between the ending and the stem, e.g., {{lang|grc|παιδεύ-ε-σθαι}}.

===Modern Greek===
The infinitive ''per se'' does not exist in Modern Greek. To see this, consider the [[ancient Greek]] ''ἐθέλω γράφειν'' “I want to write”. In [[modern Greek]] this becomes ''θέλω <u>να</u> γράψω'' “I want <u>that</u> I write”. In modern Greek, the infinitive has thus changed form and function and is used mainly in the formation of periphrastic tense forms and not with an article or alone. Instead of the Ancient Greek infinitive system ''γράφειν, γράψειν, γράψαι, γεγραφέναι'', Modern Greek uses only the form ''γράψει'', a development of the ancient Greek aorist infinitive ''γράψαι''. This form is also invariable. The modern Greek infinitive has only two forms according to voice: for example, ''γράψει'' for the active voice and ''γραφ(τ)εί'' for the passive voice (coming from the ancient passive aorist infinitive ''γραφῆναι'').