Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

• κε ‎(ke) (Epic, Lyric)
• κεν ‎(ken) (Epic, Lyric)
• κα ‎(ka) (Doric)

Pronunciation

Particle

ᾰ̓́ν • ‎(án) (modal particle)

1. Expresses potentiality or conditionality
   1. (only Epic, with subjunctive in main clauses) in that case and future tense
      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 1.184–184

        ἐγὼ δέ κ' ἄγω Βρισηΐδα καλλιπάρῃον
        αὐτὸς ἰὼν κλισίηνδε τὸ σὸν γέρας ὄφρ' ἐῢ εἰδῇς
        ὅσσον φέρτερός εἰμι σέθεν ...

        [Agamemnon speaking to Achilles]: But in that case I myself will lead away your prize, fair-cheeked Briseis, and go to my tent, so that you may learn well how much greater I am than you.

   2. (with optative) Expresses future potentiality: would or could do or be doing
   3. (with imperfect indicative) Expresses present or rarely past potentiality: were doing, would be doing
   4. (with aorist indicative) Expresses past potentiality
      • 341 BCE, Demosthenes, Third Philippic 68

        καὶ μὴν ἐκεῖνό γ᾽ αἰσχρόν, ὕστερόν ποτ᾽ εἰπεῖν ‘τίς γὰρ ἂν ᾠήθη ταῦτα γενέσθαι; νὴ τὸν Δί᾽, ἔδει γὰρ τὸ καὶ τὸ ποιῆσαι καὶ τὸ μὴ ποιῆσαι.’

        And definitely it is a shame to have to say after the fact "Who on earth could have imagined this would happen? By Zeus, of course [we] should have done this and that, and not done this and that."

2. (with past indicative) Expresses unreality
   1. (with aorist) Past or rarely present unreality: would have done, would do
   2. (with imperfect) Present or past unreality: would do, would be doing; would have been doing
   3. (with pluperfect) Present or less commonly past unreality:
3. (with past indicative) Expresses iteration or habituality: had done, had been doing; would have done, would have been doing; used to do
   • 400 BCE – 387 BCE, Plato, Apology 22.b

     ἀναλαμβάνων οὖν αὐτῶν τὰ ποιήματα ἅ μοι ἐδόκει μάλιστα πεπραγματεῦσθαι αὐτοῖς, διηρώτων ἂν αὐτοὺς τί λέγοιεν, ἵν᾽ ἅμα τι καὶ μανθάνοιμι παρ᾽ αὐτῶν.

     Taking up [the poets'] works that seemed to me to have taken them the most trouble [to write], I would question them on what they meant, so that I could at the same time learn something from them.

   1. (with Ionic past iterative)
      • 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 4.130

        οἱ δὲ ἂν Πέρσαι ἐπελθόντες λάβεσκον τὰ πρόβατα καὶ λαβόντες ἐπηείροντο ἂν τῷ πεποιημένῳ.

        The Persians used to attack and seize the cattle and take them and, after taking them, to be encouraged by this achievement.

4. (with subjunctive in subordinate clauses) Expresses generality, and often translatable with present or future tense in English
   1. With εἰ ‎(ei), contracted to ἐάν ‎(eán), expresses a general condition that is likely to occur
      • Homer, Iliad 2.364

        εἰ δέ κεν ὣς ἕρξῃς καί τοι πείθωνται Ἀχαιοί

        if thus you will do and the Achaeans obey you

      • Euripides, Alcestis 671

        ἢν δ' ἐγγὺς ἔλθῃ θάνατος, οὐδεὶς βούλεται θνῄσκειν

        if death ever come near, no one wishes to die

5. When combined with infinitive or participle in indirect speech, represents a finite verb with ἄν in direct speech

Derived terms

• ἐάν ‎(eán), ἤν ‎(ḗn), ᾱ̓́ν ‎(ā́n)
• ἐπᾱ́ν ‎(epā́n)
• ἐπειδᾱ́ν ‎(epeidā́n)
• ἕως ἄν ‎(héōs án)
• ὅπως ἄν ‎(hópōs án)
• ὃς ἄν ‎(hòs án)
• ὅταν ‎(hótan)
• πρὶν ἄν ‎(prìn án)
• ὡς ἄν ‎(hōs án)

References

• ἄν (Α) in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• «1 ἄν» in the Diccionario Griego–Español en línea (© 2006–2016)
• ἄν in Trapp, Erich, et al. (1994–2007) Lexikon zur byzantinischen Gräzität besonders des 9.-12. Jahrhunderts [the Lexicon of Byzantine Hellenism, Particularly the 9th-12th Centuries], Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften

Etymology 2

A contracted form of ἐάν ‎(eán), from εἰ ‎(ei, “if”) + ἄν ‎(án, “modal particle”).

Alternative forms

• ἐάν ‎(eán)
• ἤν ‎(ḗn) Attic

Pronunciation

Conjunction

ἄν • ‎(án) ‎(ἄ̄ν)

1. if (for more details, see εἰ ‎(ei) and ἄν ‎(án))

References

ἄν (B) in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press

• ἄν in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• ἄν in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• «ἄν» in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• «ἄν» in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• ἄν in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• “G302”, in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible, 1979
• «ἄν» in Trapp, Erich, et al. (1994–2007) Lexikon zur byzantinischen Gräzität besonders des 9.-12. Jahrhunderts [the Lexicon of Byzantine Hellenism, Particularly the 9th-12th Centuries], Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English-Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • find idem, page 320.
  • might idem, page 528.