Lesson_003_Attic_Greek_Grammar

Question 1

Greek has eight parts of speech: nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions, and particles.

Answer 1

Attic Greek Grammar Rule #42

Question 2

Like English verbs, Greek verbs have the properties of person, number, voice, mood, and tense. Related to tense are the grammatical concepts of aspect and time.

Answer 2

Attic Greek Grammar Rule #43

Question 3

A Greek verb has one of three possible persons: first, second, or third. The verb is in the first person if its subject is the person speaking (“I” or “we”). The verb is in the second person if its subject is the person being spoken to. (“you”). The verb is in third person if its subject is someone or something other than the person speaking or the person being spoken to (“he,” “she”, “it,” or “they”).

Answer 3

Attic Greek Grammar Rule #44

Question 4

A Greek verb has one of three possible numbers; singular, dual, or plural. The singular denotes that the subject is just one person, thing, or abstract idea. The dual denotes that the subject is a pair of people, things, or abstract ideas. The plural denotes that the subject is more than one person, thing, or abstract idea.

Answer 4

Attic Greek Grammar Rule #45

Question 5

A Greek verb has one of three possible voices: active, passive, or middle.

Answer 5

Attic Greek Grammar Rule #46

Question 6

A Greek verb has active voice if its subject performs an action (e.g., “I teach,” “I teach the children”).

Answer 6

Attic Greek Grammar Rule #47

Question 7

A Greek verb has passive voice if its subject is acted upon by someone or something else (e.g., “the children are taught by me”).

Answer 7

Attic Greek Grammar Rule #48

Question 8

A Greek verb has middle voice if the subject performs an action for itself or one someone or something of special interest to it (e.g., “I teach [for myself],” “I have the children taught [because of my interest in them]”; the words in brackets are implied by the verb’s middle voice, but do not actually appear in the Greek sentence).

Answer 8

Attic Greek Grammar Rule #49

Question 9

In Attic Greek, Verbs with active or middle voice may be either transitive (i.e., combined with a direct object that identifies who or what is being acted upon; e.g., “I teach the children,” “I have the children taught”) or intransitive (i.e., with no direct object appearing in the sentence; e.g., “I teach,” “I teach [for myself].” A passive sentence is the equivalent of a transitive active sentence; e.g., “The children are taught by me” describes the same situation as “I teach the children.” In both sentences it is the children who experience the teaching, but the idea is expressed in two different ways; first with “children” as the direct object of an active verb, then the “children” as the subject of a passive verb.

Answer 9

Attic Greek Grammar Rule #50

Question 10

A Attic Greek verb has one of four possible moods: indicative, imperative, subjunctive, or optative.

Answer 10

Attic Greek Grammar Rule #51

Question 11

The mood of a Greek verb reflects the speaker’s estimate of how real the action is.

Answer 11

Attic Greek Grammar Rule #52

Question 12

Greek Indicative mood suits statement of fact or discussions of reality and actual occurrences (e.g., a statement—”you are here”; a question—”are you here?”).

Answer 12

Attic Greek Grammar Rule #53

Question 13

In Attic Greek, Imperative mood is appropriate for commands, i.e., requests to change reality (e.g., “be here!”).

Answer 13

Attic Greek Grammar Rule #54

Question 14

In Attic Greek, Subjunctive and optative moods are associated with a variety of actions that are all only contemplated or imagined (e.g., a wish—”would that you were here!”; fear or doubt—”you may be here”; a possibility—”you might be here”).

Answer 14

Attic Greek Grammar Rule #55

Question 15

In Attic Greek, the notion of “tense” can be problematic. The danger of using the term is that, on the basis of English, students may simply equate it with time and not realize that Greek makes an important distinction between time and aspect.

Answer 15

Attic Greek Grammar Rule #56

Question 16

A Greek verb in the imperative, subjunctive, or optative mood has one of three possible tenses: present, aorist, or perfect.

Answer 16

Attic Greek Grammar Rule #57

Question 17

A Greek verb in the indicative mood has one of seven possible tenses: present, imperfect, future, aorist, perfect, pluperfect, or future perfect.

Answer 17

Attic Greek Grammar Rule #58

Question 18

A Greek verb in the indicative mood has one of three possible times: present, past, or future. (A verb in the imperative, subjunctive, or optative mood never denotes time; the one exception, the future optative, is discussed in Lesson 40.)

Answer 18

Attic Greek Grammar Rule #59

Question 19

In Attic Greek, There is a logical explanation for the higher number of tenses in the indicative: the imperative, subjunctive, and optative moods use tense to show aspect, while the indicative mood uses tense to show not only aspect but also time.

Answer 19

Attic Greek Grammar Rule #60

Question 20

In Attic Greek, Aspect is the type or quality of the action, as perceived by the speaker. A Greek verb has one of three possible aspects: imperfective, aoristic, or perfective. Imperfective aspect: the speaker perceives the action as a process continuing or repeated over time.

Answer 20

Attic Greek Grammar Rule #61

Question 21

In Attic Greek, Imperfective aspect: the speaker perceives the action as a process continuing or repeated over time.

Answer 21

Attic Greek Grammar Rule #62

Question 22

In Attic Greek, Aoristic aspect: the speaker perceives the action as a one-time occurrence, neither continuing nor completed.

Answer 22

Attic Greek Grammar Rule #63

Question 23

In Attic Greek, Perfective aspect: the speaker perceives the action as completed and having an enduring result.

Answer 23

Attic Greek Grammar Rule #64

Question 24

In Attic Greek, in the imperative, subjunctive, and optative moods each tense matches one of the three aspects: present tense: imperfective aspect, aorist tense: aoristic aspect, perfect tense: perfective aspect.

Answer 24

Attic Greek Grammar Rule #65

Question 25

In Attic Greek, A Greek verb in the indicative mood has one of three possible times: present, past, or future. (A verb in the imperative, subjunctive, or optative mood never denotes time; the one exception, the future optative)

Answer 25

Attic Greek Grammar Rule #66

Question 26

In Attic Greek, The indicative mood combines time and aspect in the following ways (present tense: present time, imperfective or aoristic aspect) (imperfect tense: past time, imperfective aspect) (future tense: future time, imperfective or aoristic aspect) (aorist tense: past time, aoristic aspect) (perfect tense: present time, perfective aspect) (pluperfect tense: past time, perfective aspect) (future perfect tense: future time, perfective aspect.)

Answer 26

Attic Greek Grammar Rule #67

Question 27

In Attic Greek, the four tenses of the indicative mood that denote present or future time (present, future, perfect, future perfect) are called primary (or principal) tenses. The three tenses of the indicative mood that denote past time (imperfect, aorist, pluperfect) are called secondary (or historical) tenses.

Answer 27

Attic Greek Grammar Rule #68

Question 28

Every Greek verb alters or inflects (“bends”) its form to indicate changes in its person, number, voice, mood, and tense. Inflecting a verb means adding suffixes and (sometimes) prefixes to one of its six stems; this process is known as conjugating (“joining together”).

Answer 28

Attic Greek Grammar Rule #69

Question 29

In Attic Greek, all verbs that are conjugated in the same way are grouped together and said to belong to the same conjugation. Greek has two main conjugations, a large one to which all the ω-verbs belong, and a small one to which all the μι-verbs belong.

Answer 29

Attic Greek Grammar Rule #70

Question 30

In Attic Greek, present tense of the indicative mood denotes an action happening in the present time. It may be an action happening now and only now, or it may be one that goes on all the time, including now. Most often it is viewed as a continuing, repeated, or habitual process; if so, the verb has imperfective aspect. Sometimes it is viewed as a one-time occurrence; if so, the verb has aoristic aspect. Although there is no difference in appearance between a present-tense Greek verb with imperfective aspect and one with aoristic aspect, the context generally makes clear which aspect the author of the sentence had in mind.

Answer 30

Attic Greek Grammar Rule #71

Question 31

In Attic Greek, when compared to English which has multiple ways to convey the sense of the present indicative, each with a different nuance (e.g., “I teach,” “I do teach,” “I am teaching,” “I continue teaching,” “I keep teaching”). Since Greek uses just one form, broad enough to cover all these nuances, there is no simple formula for translating the Greek present indicative into English. You must rely on the context to help you choose a suitable translation.

Answer 31

Attic Greek Grammar Rule #72

Question 32

In Attic Greek, the dual is seldom used (the plural generally takes its place)

Answer 32

Attic Greek Grammar Rule #73

Question 33

To form the Greek present tense, you must first find the present stem. When you look up a Greek word in a lexicon, you will be confronted with six principle parts. The first of these will be the first-person singular present active indicative; if it ends in -ω (e.g., παιδεύω), the verb must belong to the ω­-conjugation. Dropping the –ω from the first principle part will give you the present stem.

Answer 33

Attic Greek Grammar Rule #74

Question 34

Each Greek verb ending is actually an combination of a thematic vowel (a mark of the present tense — usually ε, but ο is used before μ or ν) and a personal ending: -ω = ο + lengthening, -εις = ε + σι (σ dropped out) + ς, -ει = ε + σι (σ dropped out), -ομεν = ο + μεν, -ετε = ε + τε, -ουσι = ο + νσι (ν dropped out; ο lengthened to ου). It is good to be aware that these phonetic changes have occurred, but you need only memorize the endings in their final form, keeping in mind that the first letter of each is a thematic vowel.

Answer 34

Attic Greek Grammar Rule #75

Question 35

The ν in the third-person plural ending is called the movable ν. It is added to a word ending is – σι whenever the following word begins with a vowel or whenever the –σι word falls at the end of a sentence.

Answer 35

Attic Greek Grammar Rule #76

Question 36

Greek verb forms that have personal endings are referred to as “finite” because the action is confined to a specific person—first, second, or third—and to a specific number—singular or plural. Finite forms do not need to be supplemented with personal pronouns to clarify who is doing the action; the endings already make that clear. Personal pronouns are added only for emphasis.

Answer 36

Attic Greek Grammar Rule #77

Question 37

The Greek accent of most finite forms is recessive, i.e., it wants to move as far to the left as possible. Thus, if the word has only two syllables, the accent will recede to the penult (and be either a circumflex or an acute)

Answer 37

Attic Greek Grammar Rule #78

Question 38

A Greek infinitive is a special form that in English always appears as the word “to” followed by a verb (e.g., “to write”) In both English and Greek, it has the ability to function in either of two ways: as a verb, complementing the main verb in the sentence, (e.g., “I wish to write”), or as a noun (e.g., “to write is difficult”; in this example the infinitive is the subject of the sentence.)

Answer 38

Attic Greek Grammar Rule #79

Question 39

The infinitive in Greek is built on a verbal stem, and as its name implies, it is non-finite: its action is not limited to a particular person or number. It has no mood, but it does have tense and voice.

Answer 39

Attic Greek Grammar Rule #80

Question 40

Present Active Infinitive: παιδεύειν (“to teach”) the present active infinitive is formed by adding –ειν. Despite its name a present infinitive does not signify an event taking place right now; rather, it implies an on-going or habitual action. You may prefer to translate the present infinitive in a way that emphasizes the on-going nature of the action (e.g., “to be engaged in teaching” or “to continue teaching” or “to keep teaching”).

Answer 40

Attic Greek Grammar Rule #81

Question 41

The imperative mood, used for giving commands, has person (but not first person), number, voice, and tense. Tenses in this mood show only aspect, not time. The present imperative has imperfective aspect and denotes an action that the speaker wishes to see happening for a while or repeatedly.

Answer 41

Attic Greek Grammar Rule #82

Question 42

In Attic Greek, The present active imperative is built on the present stem. Its endings are combinations of the thematic vowel ε/ο and the personal endings –, -τω, -τε, -ντων. As you would expect with finite verb forms, the accent is recessive. The second-person plural present imperative is identical in appearance to the second-person plural present indicative. The context will help you distinguish the two.

Answer 42

Attic Greek Grammar Rule #83

Question 43

In Attic Greek, in comparison to English, In English there is no difference in form between a second-person singular command, addressed to one person, and a second-person plural commands, addressed to more than one person. In Attic Greek, however, the singular command has a different ending from the plural (-ε instead of -ετε).

Answer 43

Attic Greek Grammar Rule #84

Question 44

In Attic Greek, the third-person imperative is an order addressed to one or more persons who are neither the one(s) speaking nor the one(s) being spoken to. Because English has no exact equivalent for this sort of command, a construction with “let” is normally used. Notice that this translation can be misleading: “let” may seem to mean “allow,” and the word that is the subject of the Greek verb confusingly appears in the objective case in English; e.g., the “they” subject of παιδευόντων turns into “them” in the translation “let them teach.” Translating “may they teach” would solve that problem but at the same time introduce another by transforming the command into a wish. There is no perfect solution.

Answer 44

Attic Greek Grammar Rule #85

Question 45

In Attic Greek, Since the present imperative has imperfective aspect, you may prefer a translation that emphasizes the on-going nature of the action (e.g., “continue teaching!”) for παίδευε or “let them keep teaching!” for παιδευόντων).

Answer 45

Attic Greek Grammar Rule #86

Question 46

In Attic Greek, In the indicative mood the normal negative adverb is οὐ; the usual place to put οὐ is right before the verb (e.g., οὐ παιδεύεις, “you are not teaching” or “you do not teach”). A prohibition or negative command is signaled by μή (“not”); the usual place to put μή is right before the imperative form of the verb (e.g., μὴ παίδευε, “don’t teach!”).

Answer 46

Attic Greek Grammar Rule #87