LESSON FIVE
Articles for Men
E1: Lesson Four Review
Review completed Practical Exercise A (L4_praxA_trans) from Lesson Four.
E2: The Masculine Definite Article
The definite article in English is the word “the”. In Greek, the definite article is declined like a noun (it is actually an adjective). The forms that go with all masculine nouns (whether 1st, 2nd or 3rd declension) are as follows:
Notice that, except for the nominative singular, the endings are the same as those in ἀποστολος. Obviously, there is no vocative definite article.
The definite article is always in the same number, gender and case form as the noun to which it is joined. For example:
The definite article is always in the same number, gender and case form as the noun to which it is joined. For example:
του ἀποστολου of the apostle
τοις ἀποστολοις to the apostles
Note carefully how the number, gender and case of the definite articles mirror their nouns in this sentence:
ὁ ἀποστολος γραφει τοις ἀδελφοις τους νομους του Κυριου.
The apostle writes the laws of the Lord to the brothers.
Sometimes phrases such as The laws of the Lord will be written οἱ του Κυριου νομοι. Notice the genitive article and noun is in between the nominative article and its noun.
E3: Different Uses of the Article
There are four ways the article is used differently in Greek than English:
1. Θεος usually has the article.
ὁ Υἱος του Θεου. The Son of God.
2. ἀνθρωπος referring to men as a class, usually has the article.
ὁ υἱος του ἀνθρωπου. The son of Man.
ὁ υἱοι των ἀνθρωπων. The sons of men.
3. Abstract nouns (love, truth, peace, etc) often have the article.
ἡ ἀγαπη μενει. Love remains.
4. The name Ἰησους prefers the article.
ὁ Ἰησους βλεπει τον λεπρον. Jesus sees the leper.
E4: Noun Compliments
Sentences are made up of subjects and predicates. The subject is the person or thing doing the activity of the verb. The predicate is basically the rest of the sentence that makes a claim about the subject.
SUBJECT PREDICATE
I see my house.
The Romans destroy Jerusalem.
There are two types of verbs in the predicate: transitive and intransitive. Verbs are transitive if they take a direct object (“I throw the ball.”). Verbs are intransitive if they do not requite a direct object (“I remain.” or “The sun shines.”).
The Romans destroy Jerusalem.
There are two types of verbs in the predicate: transitive and intransitive. Verbs are transitive if they take a direct object (“I throw the ball.”). Verbs are intransitive if they do not requite a direct object (“I remain.” or “The sun shines.”).
However, there is a type of intransitive verb which requires another word to make a complete predicate. The most common is the verb to be. “He is” by itself is an incomplete sentence. To be complete, it needs either a noun (He is an Apostle of God), a pronoun (He is ours), or an adjective (He is good). The completing word or group of words is known as the compliment. The compliment is always in the nominative case.
E5 Nouns in Apposition
When one noun follows another to explain or describe it more fully, the two words are said to be in apposition. In the phrase “Jesus the Christ” the two nouns Jesus and Christ are in apposition. Nouns in apposition will be in the same case. Therefore, in Greek, both Jesus and Christ along with their articles will have the same case endings:
ὁ Ἰησους ὁ Χριστος
E6: Practical Exercise: Translation
Translate from Greek to English and from English to Greek. See L5 Practical A Translation (L5_praxB_trans). For vocabulary refer to L5 Vocabulary (L5_vocab).
LESSON SIX
Articles for Women and Kids
F1: Lesson Five Review
Review completed Practical Exercise B (L5_praxB_trans) from Lesson Five.
F2: Feminine Nouns of the 2nd Declension
Feminine nouns that end in –ος are also in the 2nd declension and follow the same declension pattern as 2nd declension masculine nouns. This means their lexical form endings and their declension forms are the same as the masculine nouns. So, using the feminine noun παρθενος (virgin) as an example, we find the following:
Although 2nd declension feminine nouns decline like 2nd declension masculine nouns, they do not take the same definite article; they take the feminine definite article.
F3: The Feminine Definite Article
The following table shows the definite article forms that go with all feminine nouns, whether 1st, 2nd or 3rd declension:
Notice the similarities to the masculine article:
1. The genitive plural form is exactly the same.
2. The nominative forms are a single vowel or diphthong with a rough breathing mark.
3. The nominative vowels or diphthongs are the basis upon which the rest of the endings are formed after the initial τ (except the genitive plural); right down to the iota-subscript in the dative singular.
Feminine articles with 2nd declension feminine nouns produce the following combinations:
αἱ παρθενοι βλεπουσιν την ὁδον. The virgins see the way.
F4: Neuter Nouns of the 2nd Declension
All nouns that end in -ον are neuter nouns. Neuter nouns that end in -ον belong to the 2nd declension. The following table shows the 2nd declension neuter noun endings using the word ἐργον (work):
Notice that only the nominative singular and the nominative and accusative plural are different to the 2nd declension masculine and feminine endings.
Notice the duplication of the neuter nominatives in the accusatives. This duplication is a consistent feature of Greek neuter declension.
N.B. Often neuter plural subjects will take a singular verb! This can produce what first appear to be incorrect sentences such as this:
Τα τεκνα βλεπει την παρθενον.
This is correctly translated “The children see the virgin”, but is literally “The children sees the virgin”.
Neuter nouns take the neuter definite article.
F5: The Neuter Definite Article
The following table shows the definite article forms that go with all neuter nouns, whether 1st, 2nd or 3rd declension:
Notice that both nominative forms are duplicated in the accusative and that the dative and genitive forms are exactly the same as the masculine article.
F6: Practical Exercise: Translation
Translate from Greek to English and from English to Greek. See L6 Practical A Translation (L6_praxA_trans). For vocabulary refer to L6 Vocabulary (L6_vocab).
LESSON SEVEN
A Bit of Verbal
A Bit of Verbal
G1: Lesson Six Review
Review completed Practical Exercise A (L6_praxA_trans) from Lesson Six.
G2: Verbs
Verbs are the words which carry the primary meaning of a sentence. Basically speaking, it is through verbs we make statements, ask questions or give commands: “I see.” (statement); Are they running? (question); Give that to me! (command).
G3: Verbal Inflection
As with Greek nouns, Greek verbs also inflect. Just as the nouns decline according to number, gender and case, the verbs inflect according to person, tense, voice and mood. Unlike nouns, however, the inflection of verbs is not called declension, but conjugation.
Person refers to who is doing the “action” of the verb relative to the “speaker” of the sentence. There are three grammatical persons: 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Each of these can be either singular or plural. The following table shows the three categories of person in the order which the verb conjugation pattern will be presented throughout this course:
Tense is concerned with 1) the time an action takes place; and 2) the state or nature of that action. The time of an action is the primary aspect of English tenses; the state of an action is the primary aspect of Greek tenses (except for the Greek future tense).
Greek verbs come in many tenses, but in this Lesson we will only look at the present tense.Voice refers to the relationship between the action or state expressed by the verb and the nouns primarily affected by that action or state. When the subject is the doer of the action, the verb is in the active voice. When the subject is the target or the one undergoing the action, the verb is in the passive voice. (Greek has a third voice, which English doesn’t have: the middle voice. We will discuss this more fully in a future lesson).
In this lesson, we will only examine the Greek active voice.
Mood refers to the mode or manner in which a verb is expressed. The Greek mood we are concerned with in this lesson is the indicative mood. This is the mood which conveys a statement or question.
G4: The Present Active Indicative
The Greek present active indicative verb form corresponds to both the English Present Continuous and the Present Simple, albeit more closely to the present continuous. Consider these two sentences:
He is seeing. He sees.
The first verb is present continuous. (Note the use of the auxiliary “is”. Many of the tenses in English make use of auxiliary forms of the verbs “to be” and “to do”. We use an auxiliary “to do” particularly when we pose questions: “Does he see?) The verb in the second sentence is present simple.
For the sake of simplicity, from now on the vocabularies will list the definition of verbs using the English present simple.
We have already come across two forms of the Greek present indicative in the homework assignments. For example, we learned that βλεπει means “he sees/is seeing” and that βλεπουσιν means “they see/are seeing”.
Notice that, similar to the noun, the verb can be broken into two parts—a stem (βλεπ), which carries the meaning; and an ending (ει and ουσιν), which indicates the person and number of the verb.
Because Greek verb endings are exclusive to their individual person category, they can stand alone as a complete sentence. This means that the English three-word sentence “He is seeing”, or two-word sentence “He sees”, can be fully translated in Greek by a single-word sentence: The 3rd person singular form of the verb “to see”: βλεπει.
However, when a subject noun is used, the translation does not include the personal pronoun. Therefore we get the following:
βλεπει. He sees.
ἀποστολος βλεπει. An apostle sees. (not “An apostle he sees.”)
He is seeing. He sees.
The first verb is present continuous. (Note the use of the auxiliary “is”. Many of the tenses in English make use of auxiliary forms of the verbs “to be” and “to do”. We use an auxiliary “to do” particularly when we pose questions: “Does he see?) The verb in the second sentence is present simple.
For the sake of simplicity, from now on the vocabularies will list the definition of verbs using the English present simple.
We have already come across two forms of the Greek present indicative in the homework assignments. For example, we learned that βλεπει means “he sees/is seeing” and that βλεπουσιν means “they see/are seeing”.
Notice that, similar to the noun, the verb can be broken into two parts—a stem (βλεπ), which carries the meaning; and an ending (ει and ουσιν), which indicates the person and number of the verb.
Because Greek verb endings are exclusive to their individual person category, they can stand alone as a complete sentence. This means that the English three-word sentence “He is seeing”, or two-word sentence “He sees”, can be fully translated in Greek by a single-word sentence: The 3rd person singular form of the verb “to see”: βλεπει.
However, when a subject noun is used, the translation does not include the personal pronoun. Therefore we get the following:
βλεπει. He sees.
ἀποστολος βλεπει. An apostle sees. (not “An apostle he sees.”)
G5: ω Verbs
The lexical form for verbs is the 1st person singular form. The following table shows the present indicative endings for verbs whose lexical forms end in ω, such as the verb βλεπω (I see):
Notice the brackets around the ν in the 3rd person plural. This indicates what is called the “movable ν”. In the Greek NT, you will often find the ν missing from the 3rd person (singular or plural) verb endings. However, be advised that students are expected to always include the ν.
Notice that Greek has a different verb ending for each of the six person categories—in particular, note that, unlike modern English, Greek distinguishes between you (singular) and you (plural).
G6: Practical Exercise: Translation
Translate from Greek to English and from English to Greek. See L7 Practical A Translation (L7_praxA_trans). For vocabulary refer to L7 Vocabulary (L7_vocab).
LESSON EIGHT
More Verbal
H1: Lesson Seven Review
Review completed Practical Exercise A (L7_praxA_trans) from Lesson Seven.
H2: εω Verb Contractions
There are also quite a few verbs whose 1st person lexical forms end in εω. Because of the epsilon, when the Present Indicative Active endings are added to these stems, certain contractions take place. These contractions occur according to the following rules:
ε combines with ε to give ει
ε combines with ο to give ου
ε drops out before a long vowel or diphthong
One of these εω verbs is φιλεω. Here is how the contraction rules affect the conjugation of φιλεω:
φιλε + ω (long vowel, so ε drops out) = φιλω
φιλε + εις (diphthong, so ε drops out) = φιλεις
φιλε + ει (diphthong, so ε drops out) = φιλει
φιλε + ομεν (ε combines with ο to give ου) = φιλουμεν
φιλε + ετε (ε combines with ε to give ει) = φιλειτε
φιλε + ουσιν (diphthong, so ε drops out) = φιλουσιν
Note that, whilst all of the endings are affected by the contraction rules, only the final forms of the 1st and 2nd person plurals are different to the endings of the conjugated ω verb forms.
Note also that the lexical forms of the εω verbs are always the un-contracted forms.
The above contraction rules can be represented diagrammatically:
ε + ε = ει
ε + ο = ου
(ε) + long vowel or diphthong
H3: 1st Declension Feminine Nouns in -η
There are three different patterns of 1st Declension feminine nouns. The following table shows the pattern for those nouns whose lexical form ends in –η using the word ἀρχη (beginning):
Note how these endings mirror the endings of the feminine article:
H4: Practical Exercise: Translation
Translate from Greek to English and from English to Greek. See L8 Practical A Translation (L8_praxA_trans). For vocabulary refer to L8 Vocabulary (L8_vocab).
