LESSON 11
When Agatha are Good
K1: Lesson Ten Review
Review completed Practical Exercise A (L10_praxA_trans) from Lesson Ten.
K2: Adjectives
Adjectives are words that modify nouns. They do this by describing an attribute or characteristic of a noun. Adjectives can be used either attributively or predicatively. Attributive use merely gives a description; predicative use completes a sentence.
Attributive: The good disciple.
Predicative: The disciple is good.
There are six kinds of adjectives: qualitative, quantitative, demonstrative, possessive, interrogative and identical. Adjectives of quality, as the name suggests, tell us what kind of thing a noun is (e.g. good, holy, narrow, wide). This lesson will examine the qualitative adjectives used attributively.
K3: 2nd Declension Adjectives
Adjectives decline like articles (which are themselves adjectives) and, like articles, must agree with the nouns they modify in number, gender and case. The following table shows the 2nd declension adjective endings using the word ἀγαθος (good):
Note that the masculine and neuter endings are the same as 2nd declension nouns and the feminine endings are the same as the 1st declension nouns in –η.
Like the articles, the adjective endings are fixed. So, whilst they reflect the gender, number and case of the nouns they modify, their endings will not always be identical. For example, note the different endings on the masculine article and the masculine noun in “the prophets”: οἱ προφηται.
There is another 2nd declension adjective pattern in the feminine singular of those adjectives whose stems end in a vowel or ρ. The following table shows these endings using the word ἁγιος (holy):
This is the same 1st declension feminine pattern as nouns in –α like ἡμερα. However, with adjectives, there is no “mixed” –α/–η form like δοξα.
N.B. Compound adjectives, like the alpha-privative ἀκαθαρτος (unclean), have no separate form for the feminine; like 2nd declension nouns, they the masculine forms are used for both masculine and feminine (and the neuter for neuters).
K4: Attributive Position
When used attributively without the article, adjectives can go on either side of the modified noun. This means that “a good disciple” can be written in one of the following two ways:
ἀγαθος μαθητης or μαθητης ἀγαθος.
However, when the article is used, both the article and the adjective must be put in what is called the attributive position—which is in front of the article. So, “the good disciple” can be written in one of the following two ways by inserting a second article:
ὁ ἀγαθος μαθητης or ὁ μαθητης ὁ ἀγαθος.
N.B. The second article in the second form is never translated.
K5: Adjectives as Nouns
English often converts adjectives into collective nouns (I.e. the blind, the poor, etc.). This is an extremely common use of the adjective in Greek, too, however, due to the nature of the gender and case systems, the resultant noun forms are much more versatile than in English. This means that often the Greek adjectival nouns must be over-translated into English.
ὁ πρωτος “the first man” οἱ ἁγιοι “the holy men (saints)”
αἱ ἀγαθαι “the good women” τα ἐσχατα “the last things”
With these forms, in the absence of a previously mentioned noun to which the adjective directly refers (an antecedent), the default translation for masculine is “…men”, for feminine “…woman”, and for neuters “…thing”. For example:
ὁ ἀγιος This is always “holy man”, unless there is a specific masculine,
singular, non-human antecedent (I.e. ἀρτος).
ἡ ἀγια This is always “holy woman”, unless there is a specific feminine,
singular, non-human antecedent (I.e. ἡμερα).
το ἀγιον This is always “holy thing”, unless there is a specific neuter,
singular, human antecedent (I.e. τεκνον).
N.B. There is no Greek equivalent of the word “thing”; a form like ἐσχατα must be used.
K6: Practical Exercise: Vocabulary
Translate from Greek to English and from English to Greek. See L11 Practical A Translation (L11_praxA_trans). For vocabulary refer to L11 Vocabulary (L11_vocab).
ἀγαθος μαθητης or μαθητης ἀγαθος.
However, when the article is used, both the article and the adjective must be put in what is called the attributive position—which is in front of the article. So, “the good disciple” can be written in one of the following two ways by inserting a second article:
ὁ ἀγαθος μαθητης or ὁ μαθητης ὁ ἀγαθος.
N.B. The second article in the second form is never translated.
K5: Adjectives as Nouns
English often converts adjectives into collective nouns (I.e. the blind, the poor, etc.). This is an extremely common use of the adjective in Greek, too, however, due to the nature of the gender and case systems, the resultant noun forms are much more versatile than in English. This means that often the Greek adjectival nouns must be over-translated into English.
ὁ πρωτος “the first man” οἱ ἁγιοι “the holy men (saints)”
αἱ ἀγαθαι “the good women” τα ἐσχατα “the last things”
With these forms, in the absence of a previously mentioned noun to which the adjective directly refers (an antecedent), the default translation for masculine is “…men”, for feminine “…woman”, and for neuters “…thing”. For example:
ὁ ἀγιος This is always “holy man”, unless there is a specific masculine,
singular, non-human antecedent (I.e. ἀρτος).
ἡ ἀγια This is always “holy woman”, unless there is a specific feminine,
singular, non-human antecedent (I.e. ἡμερα).
το ἀγιον This is always “holy thing”, unless there is a specific neuter,
singular, human antecedent (I.e. τεκνον).
N.B. There is no Greek equivalent of the word “thing”; a form like ἐσχατα must be used.
K6: Practical Exercise: Vocabulary
Translate from Greek to English and from English to Greek. See L11 Practical A Translation (L11_praxA_trans). For vocabulary refer to L11 Vocabulary (L11_vocab).
LESSON 12
When Agatha are to be Good
L1: Lesson Eleven Review
Review completed Practical Exercise A (L11_praxA_trans) from Lesson Eleven.
L2: Adjectives Used Predicatively
Adjectives used predicatively complete a sentence; for example, “The disciple is good.” There are two ways of saying this in Greek:
ὁ μαθητης ἑστιν ἀγαθος. or ἀγαθος ἑστιν ὁ μαθητης.
Notice ἀγαθος nominative. This is because forms of “to be” operate like “grammatical equal signs” and turn objects, which are normally accusative, into compliments, which are always nominative (see L5:E4).
Notice there is no preceding article in front of the adjective in either sentence. When placed this way the adjective is said to be in the predicative position.
L3: Predicative Position & “To Be”
Adjectives with no preceding article are in the predicative position. There is a special feature of the predicative position. Because there is no article preceding the adjective, is unmistakably predicative rather than attributive, so there is no need real need to include the verb “to be”. Therefore “the disciple is good” can be written like so:
Predicative: ὁ μαθητης ἀγαθος.
ἀγαθος ὁ μαθητης.
Compare this with “the good disciple”:
Attributive: ὁ ἀγαθος μαθητης.
ὁ μαθητης ὁ ἀγαθος.
N.B. This dropping of the verb only occurs with forms of the verb “to be” or (rarely) the verb “to become”. The New Testament writers usually include the verb with adjectives used in the predicative position.
L4: Forms of “To Be”
The following table shows the present indicative forms of the verb “to be”:
1. In both the singular and plural third person forms, the ν is movable.
2. The second person singular εἶ has a circumflex accent. This is to distinguish it from the unaccented word εἰ meaning “if”. Compare the two forms in Matthew 4:3:
εἰ υἱος εἶ του Θεου
(If you are the son of God...)
L5: Practical Exercise: Vocabulary
1. In both the singular and plural third person forms, the ν is movable.
2. The second person singular εἶ has a circumflex accent. This is to distinguish it from the unaccented word εἰ meaning “if”. Compare the two forms in Matthew 4:3:
εἰ υἱος εἶ του Θεου
(If you are the son of God...)
L5: Practical Exercise: Vocabulary
Translate from Greek to English and from English to Greek. See L12 Practical A Translation (L12_praxA_trans). For vocabulary refer to L12 Vocabulary (L12_vocab).
