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The optative mood (/ ˈ ɒ p t ə t ɪ v / or / ɒ p ˈ t eɪ t ɪ v /; [1] Ancient Greek [ἔγκλισις] εὐκτική, [énklisis] euktikḗ, "[inflection] for wishing", [2] Latin optātīvus [modus] "[mode] for wishing") [3] is a grammatical mood of the Ancient Greek verb, named for its use as a way to express wishes.
The optative is one of the four original moods of Proto-Indo-European (the other three being the indicative mood, the subjunctive mood, and the imperative mood).However, many Indo-European languages lost the inherited optative, either as a formal category, or functional, i.e. merged it with the subjunctive, or even replaced the subjunctive with optative.
The optative mood can similarly be used after εἰ (ei) "if" in general clauses of the type "if ever it used to happen". [40] In the following examples the present optative is used in the protasis, and the imperfect indicative in the apodosis: εἴ πού τι ὁρῴη βρωτόν, διεδίδου. (Xenophon) [41]
(Greek: εὐκτική euktikḗ "for wishing", from εὔχομαι eúkhomai "I wish"). The optative mood can generally be recognised because it has the letters οι (oi), αι (ai) or ει (ei) in the ending. One use of the optative mood is in conditional sentences referring to a hypothetical situation in the future.
The optative mood expresses hopes, wishes or commands and has other uses that may overlap with the subjunctive mood. Few languages have an optative as a distinct mood; some that do are Albanian , Ancient Greek , Hungarian , Kazakh , Japanese , Finnish , Nepali , and Sanskrit .
As well as the indicative mood, Ancient Greek had an imperative, subjunctive, and optative mood. The imperative mood is found in three tenses (present, aorist, and perfect). The aorist is used when the speaker wants something done at once, e.g. δότε μοι (dóte moi) [27] "give it to me at once!"
The subjunctive mood (Greek ὑποτακτική (hupotaktikḗ) "for arranging underneath", from ὑποτάσσω (hupotássō) "I arrange beneath") along with the indicative, optative, and imperative, is one of the four moods of the Ancient Greek verb. It can be used both in the meaning "should" (the jussive subjunctive) and in the meaning ...
The optative mood expresses hopes, wishes or commands. Other uses may overlap with the subjunctive mood. Few languages have an optative as a distinct mood; some that do are Albanian, Ancient Greek, Sanskrit, Finnish, Avestan (it was also present in Proto-Indo-European, the ancestor of the aforementioned languages except for Finnish).