Editing Greek language (section)

===Morphology===
In all its stages, the [[Morphology (linguistics)|morphology]] of Greek shows an extensive set of [[Productive (linguistics)|productive]] [[derivational affix]]es, a limited but productive system of [[Compound (linguistics)|compounding]]<ref>{{harvnb|Ralli|2001|pp=164–203}}.</ref> and a rich [[inflection]]al system. Although its morphological categories have been fairly stable over time, morphological changes are present throughout, particularly in the [[Nominal (linguistics)|nominal]] and verbal systems. The major change in the nominal morphology since the classical stage was the disuse of the [[dative case]] (its functions being largely taken over by the [[Genitive case|genitive]]). The verbal system has lost the [[infinitive]], the [[Synthetic (linguistics)|synthetically]]-formed future, and [[perfect tense]]s and the [[optative mood]]. Many have been replaced by [[periphrastic]] ([[Analytic language|analytical]]) forms.

====Nouns and adjectives====
Pronouns show distinctions in [[grammatical person|person]] (1st, 2nd, and 3rd), [[grammatical number|number]] (singular, [[Dual (grammatical number)|dual]], and plural in the ancient language; singular and plural alone in later stages), and [[grammatical gender|gender]] (masculine, feminine, and neuter), and [[Declension (linguistics)|decline]] for [[grammatical case|case]] (from six cases in the earliest forms attested to four in the modern language).{{NoteTag|The four cases that are found in all stages of Greek are the nominative, genitive, accusative, and vocative. The dative/locative of Ancient Greek disappeared in the late Hellenistic period, and the instrumental case of Mycenaean Greek disappeared in the Archaic period.}} Nouns, articles, and adjectives show all the distinctions except for a person. Both [[Attributive adjective|attributive]] and [[Predicative adjective|predicative]] adjectives [[Agreement (linguistics)|agree]] with the noun.

====Verbs====
The inflectional categories of the Greek verb have likewise remained largely the same over the course of the language's history but with significant changes in the number of distinctions within each category and their morphological expression. Greek verbs have [[synthetic language|synthetic]] inflectional forms for:

{| class="wikitable"
!
! Ancient Greek
! Modern Greek
|-
! Person
| first, second and third || also [[T–V distinction|second person formal]]
|-
! Number
| singular, [[dual (grammatical number)|dual]] and plural || singular and plural
|-
! [[Grammatical tense|tense]]
| [[Present tense|present]], [[past tense|past]] and [[future tense|future]]
| past and non-past (future is expressed by a [[Periphrasis|periphrastic construction]])
|-
! [[Grammatical aspect|aspect]]
| [[Imperfective aspect|imperfective]], [[perfective aspect|perfective]] (traditionally called ''[[aorist]]'') and [[perfect (grammar)|perfect]] (sometimes also called ''perfective''; see [[Perfective aspect#Perfective vs. perfect|note about terminology]])
| imperfective and perfective/aorist (perfect is expressed by a periphrastic construction)
|-
! [[Grammatical mood|mood]]
| [[realis mood|indicative]], [[subjunctive mood|subjunctive]], [[imperative mood|imperative]] and [[optative mood|optative]]
| indicative, subjunctive,{{NoteTag|There is no particular morphological form that can be identified as 'subjunctive' in the modern language, but the term is sometimes encountered in descriptions even if the most complete modern grammar (Holton et al. 1997) does not use it and calls certain traditionally-'subjunctive' forms 'dependent'. Most Greek linguists advocate abandoning the traditional terminology (Anna Roussou and Tasos Tsangalidis 2009, in ''Meletes gia tin Elliniki Glossa'', Thessaloniki, Anastasia Giannakidou 2009 "Temporal semantics and polarity: The dependency of the subjunctive revisited", Lingua); see [[Modern Greek grammar#The verb|Modern Greek grammar]] for explanation.}} and imperative (other modal functions are expressed by periphrastic constructions)
|-
! Voice
| [[active voice|active]], [[Mediopassive voice|medio-passive]], and [[passive voice|passive]]
| [[Active voice|active]] and [[mediopassive voice|medio-passive]]
|}