The Greek middle voice has no standard translation in English, although one is usually arbitrarily assigned in elementrary Greek grammars: e.g., lu,omai, "I am loosing for myself."

Translating the middle voice is difficult because there is nothing strictly equivalent to it in English.

Generally speaking, the middle voice is used when the subject acts in some way that concerns itself, or is involved to a great degree in the action itself or in the results of the action.

One will do well to follow Black in charting out three basic ways to understand and translate the different nuances that may be conveyed by the use of the middle voice.

Read Black's discussion of the reflexive, intensive, and reciprocal uses of the middle voice (Learn §82).

You may have already observed from your reading of Black (Learn, Chapter 12) that both present passive and middle indicative verbs are formed from the primary middle suffixes.

(1) The primary middle suffixes:

(2) Also, the present middle indicative suffixes are identical to those of the present passive indicative:

(3) How, then, is one able to distinguish between middle and passive verbs? The co-text, of course!

In particular, be on the alert for the three prepositions used to denote the three different types of agency (u`po,, dia,, evn). One of these prepositions may often serve as a signal that a nearby verb is passive.