§ 114. The verbal in -τέος is used both in a personal and an impersonal construction.

1. In the personal construction the verbal is always passive in sense; expressing necessity (like the Latin Participle in -dus) and agreeing with its subject in case. E. g.

ʾΩφελητέα σοι ἡ πόλις ἐστί, the city must be benefited by you. Xen. Mem. III, 6, 3. Ἂλλας (ναῦς) ἐκ τῶν ξυμμάχων μεταπεμπτέας εἶναι (ἔφη), he said that others must be sent for. Thuc. VI, 25. Οὐ γὰρ πρὸ τῆς ἀληθείας τιμητέος ὐνὴρ, ἀλλʾ ὅ λέγω ῥητέον. Plat. Rep. X, 595 C. So VIII, 561 C. Φράζοντες ὡς οὔ σφι περιοπτέη ἐστὶ ἡ Ἑλλὰς ἀπολλυμένη. Hdt. VII, 168.

Note. The substantive denoting the agent is here in the dative, as in the impersonal construction.

2. In the impersonal construction (which is the most common) the verbal stands in the neuter of the nominative singular (sometimes plural) with ἐστί expressed or understood, and is regularly active in sense. The expression is equivalent to δεῖ, it is necessary, with the Infinitive active or middle of the verb from which the verbal is derived.

Active verbals of this class may take an object in the same case which would follow their verbs. The agent is generally expressed by the dative, sometimes by the accusative.