Lesson 04. First Declension, Feminine Nouns Part 1 Flashcards
Declining versus conjugating
Inflecting a verb is called conjugating; inflecting a noun is called declining.
Verbs are classified by their conjugation; nouns are classified by their declension.
Number of stems of a greek noun
Unlike a Greek verb, which has six stems, a Greek noun usually has just one. Endings that are added to the stem indicate gender, number, and case.
Noun genders
Masculine, Feminine, Common, Neuter
Noun endings indicate …
Gender, Number and Case
Cases of a noun
Nominative Genitive Dative Accusative Vocative
Nominative case
The subject of the sentence.
Also used for a predicative noun after a linking verb (a predicate noun is equated somehow with the subject and must match it’s case)
- “we are friends”
- “you have become a nuisance”
- “they will be chosen as delegates”Nom. M. F. N.
SING ὁ ἡ τό
PLUR οἱ αἱ τά
Genitive case
A noun modifying another noun or the possessor of another noun:
- usually can be translated with the preposition “of”:
- grapes of wrath; love of life
- the pages of the book turned yellow
- personal possession:
- John’s book / the book of John was on the table
- Can denote a source or point of origin (“away from”, “out of”, genesis).
- He moved away from the river; He came out of the house
WHOLES ARE ORIGINS - PARTS ARE POSSESSIONS
Gen. M. F. Ν. SING τοῦ, τῆς, τοῦ PLUR τῶν, τῶν, τῶν
Dative case
The indirect object of a verb:
- usually translated with the preposition “to” or “for”
- give the prize to the winner; “the weather is perfect for ducks”
- sometimes denotes the means, accompaniment, location or time:
- “by,” “with,” “in,” “at”
- Aristotle’s use of the “bare dative” φύσει to indicate “by nature”.
SING τῷ, τῇ, τῷ
PLUR τοῖς, ταῖς, τοῖς
Accusative case
The direct object of a verb, the noun being directly acted upon by the subject.
Also used for nouns that denote a destination or goal or an extent of time or space (“into,” “to,” “toward,” “for”).
Acc. M. F. Ν. SING τόν, τήν, τό PLUR τούς, τάς, τά
Vocative case
A person, either real or imaginary, who is being addressed.
- farewell, Socrates! - O death, where is thy sting? Voc. M. F. SING -, -α -, -α/η PLUR -, -ας -, -αι
First declension nouns and gender
First-declension nouns can be divided into two groups: feminines and masculines.
Two types of first-declension feminine nouns
α-stems and η-stems
Endings for first-declension feminine nouns
SINGULAR α-type η-type Nominative -ᾱ -η Genitive -ᾱς -ης Dative -ᾱͅ -ῃ Accusative -ᾱν -ην Vocative -ᾱ -η PLURAL α-type η-type Nominative -αι -αι Genitive -ων -ων Dative -αις -αις Accusative -ᾱς -ᾱς Vocative -αι -αι
Characteristics of first declension feminine noun endings
First-declension feminines all have the same endings in the plu¬ral: -αι, -ων, -αις, -ᾱς, -αι. The singular endings are -ᾱ, -ᾱς, -ᾱͅ, -ᾱν, -ᾱ only if the preceding letter is ε, ι, or ρ; otherwise they are -η, -ης, -ῃ, -ην, -η. Notice that the nominative and the vocative forms are identical.
The nominative and vocative are identical in the plural of every declension (though not always in the singular).
Persistent accent for nouns
The accent of all Greek nouns is persistent, i.e., the location of the accent in the nominative singular shows where the accent wants to stay or “persist.”
“Location” refers not to antepenult, penult, etc., but to the actual letters making up the accented syllable; in the nominative singu¬lar of χώρᾱ, for example, the accented syllable is χω-, and the acute accent tries to remain with that particular group of letters. (Notice that this is different from the accent of finite verbs, which wants simply to recede.)
When the case-ending changes, the General Principles of Accenting may force the noun’s accent to move to another syllable or to change its form (e.g., χώρᾱ be¬comes χῶραι). It is vital to memorize the location of the accent in the nominative singular.
Two additional rules in accenting of first-declension feminine nouns
- If the accent falls on the ultima in the genitive and dative, singular and plural, it changes from acute to circumflex.
- In the genitive plural of first-declension nouns, the syllable that receives the accent is always the ultima.
Definite Article, Feminine Forms
SING PLURAL Nom. ἡ αἱ Gen. τῆς τῶν Dat. τῇ ταῖς Acc. τήν τάς
The nominatives ἡ and αἱ are proclitics (like οὐ) and thus have no accent.
Use of the definite article
Both Greek and English use a definite article (“the”) to indicate that someone or something is definite, previously mentioned, or well-known.
In Greek, for instance, it is customary to put a definite article with an abstract noun if the speaker is thinking of the concept as a whole: e.g., πέµπε τὴν ἡσυχίᾱν (“send leisure [all of it]!”), as opposed to πέµπε ἡσυχίᾱν (“send [some/any] leisure!”).
It is also more normal in Greek than in English to add a definite article to a proper name (e.g., “the Socrates,” “the Zeus,” “the Greece”).
The dative case and verbs of giving
One of the most frequent uses of the dative case is to designate the indirect object in a sentence concerned with giving (the word dative comes from the Latin verb meaning “give”).
In such a sentence the subject gives, offers, presents, dedicates, entrusts, or promises someone or something (= direct object, accusative case) to someone or something else (= indirect object, dative case). The indirect object and/or the direct object may be omitted.
The dative case and verbs of sending, writing, or saying
With verbs of sending, writing, or saying—as opposed to giving—, the speaker has the choice of using an indirect object (dative case, no preposition) or a prepositional phrase (i.e., a preposition meaning “to” followed by a noun in the accusative case).
As the object of the preposition, the recipient is viewed as a destination or goal, the point toward which the action is directed. The indirect object generally has a more personal flavor: the recipient is viewed as the beneficiary of the subject’s action.
πέμπω
send [cf. propempticon]
ἀγορά, -ᾶς, ἡ
marketplace, market [cf. agoraphobia]
ἐπιστολή, -ῆς, ἡ
letter, message [cf. epistle]
ἡσυχίᾱ, -ᾱς, ἡ
leisure, stillness, tranquillity
θεά, -ᾶς, ἡ
goddess
σκηνή, -ῆς, ἡ
tent [cf. scene]
χώρᾱ, -ᾱς, ἡ
land, country, countryside, space, position
εἰς
(preposition + object in accusative case) into, to
Implies that someone or something is moving into some environment.
Proclitic
ἐκ (ἐξ)
(preposition + object in genitive case) out of (ἐξ is
used before words starting with a vowel) [cf.
eclectic, ecstasy]
Implies that someone or something is moving out of some environment.
Proclitic
ἐν
(preposition + object in dative case) in [cf. entropy,
enzyme]
implies
that someone or something is in a certain environment, neither entering it nor moving out of it.
Proclitic
Exceptions to the rule that that a Greek word can end only in a vowel, ν, ρ, ς, ξ, or ψ
The only exceptions are οὐκ and οὐχ, and ἐκ
ὦ
(interjection used with a noun in the vocative) O!
ὦ and the vocative used with it normally come in the interior of a sentence, but they may be placed at the start of a sentence for emphasis.
When addressing someone, it is more customary to add ὦ than to leave it out; since ὦ is far more familiar-sounding in Greek than “O!” is in English, it is often best to omit “O!” from your translation.
ὦ is not equivalent to our surprised “oh!”; it is never used alone as an exclamation.
Locative prepositions and grammatical cases
ἐις into, to, accusative
ἐκ out of, genitive
ἐν in, dative
