Ancient Greek for Everyone:
Unit 3:
Greek Nouns
supplement:
Tips on Translating Greek into English
GREK 1001
Fall 2013
M-Th 9:30-10:20 Coates 236
Wilfred E. Major
Ancient Greek for Everyone:
A New Digital Resource for
Beginning Greek
Unit 3: Greek Nouns
supplement:
Tips on Translating Greek into English
2013 edition
Wilfred E. Major
wmajor@lsu.edu
Ancient Greek for Everyone
This class
AGE Unit 3: Introduction to the Greek Noun
• This unit has introduced nouns, so that, combined
with verbs, you can now begin reading sentences in
Greek.
• This section offers some observations and notes on
Greek sentences and tips for translating a Greek
sentence into English.
Ancient Greek for Everyone
Sentences in Greek
• We will use the sentence below as an example:
ὁ Μάρκος δίδωσι τοῖς ἄρχουσι τὸν παῖδα τοῦ Πείσονος.
Marcus gives the rulers the child of Piso.
Ancient Greek for Everyone
Sentences in Greek
• The verb of a Greek sentence conveys the most
information and the core information for understanding
what the sentence says:
–
–
–
–
–
Person
Number
Tense
Mood
Voice
A Greek verb by itself can be an entire sentence.
Ancient Greek for Everyone
• From Unit 2: A Greek verb by itself usually
communicates FIVE pieces of information:
– Person
– Number
– Tense
– Mood
– Voice
PARSING: To “parse” a Greek verb means to identify the
above five qualities about a specific verb form.
Ancient Greek for Everyone
Sentences in Greek
• This verb is:
– 3rd person
– Singular
– Present
– Indicative
– Active
the verb means “give”
ὁ Μάρκος δίδωσι τοῖς ἄρχουσι τὸν παῖδα τοῦ Πείσονος.
Marcus gives the rulers the child of Piso.
Ancient Greek for Everyone
Sentences in Greek
• IMPORTANT: The form of the verb determines its meaning, not
its place in the sentence. It can appear anywhere in the sentence
with no change in meaning:
δίδωσιν ὁ Μάρκος τοῖς ἄρχουσι τὸν παῖδα τοῦ Πείσονος.
ὁ Μάρκος δίδωσι τοῖς ἄρχουσι τὸν παῖδα τοῦ Πείσονος.
ὁ Μάρκος τοῖς ἄρχουσι δίδωσι τὸν παῖδα τοῦ Πείσονος.
ὁ Μάρκος τοῖς ἄρχουσι τὸν παῖδα δίδωσι τοῦ Πείσονος.
ὁ Μάρκος τοῖς ἄρχουσι τὸν παῖδα τοῦ Πείσονος δίδωσιν.
Marcus gives the rulers the child of Piso.
Ancient Greek for Everyone
Sentences in Greek
• IMPORTANT: The form of the verb determines its meaning, not its place in
the sentence. It can appear anywhere in the sentence with no change in
meaning.
• This is crucial: never simply translate a Greek sentence word by
word into English order. It hardly ever works. It works about as
well as adding numerals in order (does 2 + 4 = 24?).
δίδωσιν ὁ Μάρκος τοῖς ἄρχουσι τὸν παῖδα τοῦ Πείσονος.
ὁ Μάρκος δίδωσι τοῖς ἄρχουσι τὸν παῖδα τοῦ Πείσονος.
ὁ Μάρκος τοῖς ἄρχουσι δίδωσι τὸν παῖδα τοῦ Πείσονος.
ὁ Μάρκος τοῖς ἄρχουσι τὸν παῖδα δίδωσι τοῦ Πείσονος.
ὁ Μάρκος τοῖς ἄρχουσι τὸν παῖδα τοῦ Πείσονος δίδωσιν.
Marcus gives the rulers the child of Piso.
Ancient Greek for Everyone
Sentences in Greek
• The case of a noun in a Greek sentence conveys its role in
relation to the verb or another noun:
–
–
–
–
Nominative
Genitive
Dative
Accusative
Parse a Greek noun before deciding its role in a sentence.
Ancient Greek for Everyone
• A Greek noun communicates THREE pieces of
information:
– Gender
– Number
– Case
PARSING: To “parse” a Greek noun means to identify the
above three qualities about a specific noun form.
Ancient Greek for Everyone
• Greek uses four cases:
– Nominative: The nominative case indicates that a noun is the
subject of a verb.
– Genitive
– Dative
– Accusative
ὁ Μάρκος δίδωσι τοῖς ἄρχουσι τὸν παῖδα τοῦ Πείσονος.
Marcus gives the rulers the child of Piso.
Ancient Greek for Everyone
Sentences in Greek
• IMPORTANT: The case of the noun determines its meaning,
not its place in the sentence. It can appear anywhere in the
sentence with no change in meaning:
ὁ Μάρκος δίδωσι τοῖς ἄρχουσι τὸν παῖδα τοῦ Πείσονος.
δίδωσιν ὁ Μάρκος τοῖς ἄρχουσι τὸν παῖδα τοῦ Πείσονος.
δίδωσι τοῖς ἄρχουσιν ὁ Μάρκος τὸν παῖδα τοῦ Πείσονος.
δίδωσι τοῖς ἄρχουσι τὸν παῖδα ὁ Μάρκος τοῦ Πείσονος.
δίδωσι τοῖς ἄρχουσι τὸν παῖδα τοῦ Πείσονος ὁ Μάρκος.
Marcus gives the rulers the child of Piso.
Ancient Greek for Everyone
• Greek uses four cases:
– Nominative
– Genitive
– Dative
– Accusative: The accusative case indicates that a noun is
the first (primary, direct) object of a verb.
ὁ Μάρκος δίδωσι τοῖς ἄρχουσι τὸν παῖδα τοῦ Πείσονος.
Marcus gives the rulers the child of Piso.
Ancient Greek for Everyone
Sentences in Greek
• IMPORTANT: The case of the noun determines its meaning,
not its place in the sentence. It can appear anywhere in the
sentence with no change in meaning:
τὸν παῖδα ὁ Μάρκος δίδωσι τοῖς ἄρχουσι τοῦ Πείσονος.
ὁ Μάρκος τὸν παῖδα δίδωσι τοῖς ἄρχουσι τοῦ Πείσονος.
ὁ Μάρκος δίδωσι τὸν παῖδα τοῖς ἄρχουσι τοῦ Πείσονος.
ὁ Μάρκος δίδωσι τοῖς ἄρχουσι τὸν παῖδα τοῦ Πείσονος.
ὁ Μάρκος δίδωσι τοῖς ἄρχουσι τοῦ Πείσονος τὸν παῖδα.
Marcus gives the rulers the child of Piso.
Ancient Greek for Everyone
• Greek uses four cases:
– Nominative
– Genitive
– Dative: The dative case indicates that a noun is the second
(indirect) object of a verb.
– Accusative:
ὁ Μάρκος δίδωσι τοῖς ἄρχουσι τὸν παῖδα τοῦ Πείσονος.
Marcus gives the rulers the child of Piso.
Ancient Greek for Everyone
Sentences in Greek
• IMPORTANT: The case of the noun determines its meaning,
not its place in the sentence. It can appear anywhere in the
sentence with no change in meaning:
τοῖς ἄρχουσιν ὁ Μάρκος δίδωσι τὸν παῖδα τοῦ Πείσονος.
ὁ Μάρκος τοῖς ἄρχουσι δίδωσιν τὸν παῖδα τοῦ Πείσονος.
ὁ Μάρκος δίδωσι τοῖς ἄρχουσι τὸν παῖδα τοῦ Πείσονος.
ὁ Μάρκος δίδωσι τὸν παῖδα τοῖς ἄρχουσι τοῦ Πείσονος.
ὁ Μάρκος δίδωσι τὸν παῖδα τοῦ Πείσονος τοῖς ἄρχουσιν.
Marcus gives the rulers the child of Piso.
Ancient Greek for Everyone
• Greek uses four cases:
– Nominative
– Genitive: The genitive case plays roughly the same role as the
preposition “of” in English.
– Dative
– Accusative:
ὁ Μάρκος δίδωσι τοῖς ἄρχουσι τὸν παῖδα τοῦ Πείσονος.
Marcus gives the rulers the child of Piso.
Ancient Greek for Everyone
Sentences in Greek
• The Genitive case is normally adjacent to the noun to which it is
linked:
ὁ Μάρκος δίδωσι τοῖς ἄρχουσι τὸν τοῦ Πείσονος παῖδα.
ὁ Μάρκος δίδωσι τοῖς ἄρχουσι τὸν παῖδα τοῦ Πείσονος.
ὁ Μάρκος δίδωσι τοῦ Πείσονος τὸν παῖδα τοῖς ἄρχουσιν.
Marcus gives the child of Piso tο τhe rulers.
Marcus gives Piso’s child tο τhe rulers.
Ancient Greek for Everyone
Sentences in Greek
• In general, read the entire Greek sentence to determine what it
says before you translate it into English.
• Often you will have more than one legitimate way to turn the
sentence into English. Choose the version that sounds best to you
in English.
ὁ Μάρκος δίδωσι τοῖς ἄρχουσι τὸν παῖδα τοῦ Πείσονος.
Marcus gives the rulers the child of Piso.
Marcus gives the rulers Piso’s child.
Marcus gives Piso’s child to the rulers.
Marcus is giving Piso’s child to the rulers.
All of these translations are legitimate and correct.
Ancient Greek for Everyone
Sentences in Greek
• Often you will have more than one legitimate way to turn the
sentence into English. Choose the version that sounds best to you
in English, so long as you do not change what is happening in the
Greek sentence.
ὁ Μάρκος δίδωσι τοῖς ἄρχουσι τὸν παῖδα τοῦ Πείσονος.
correct: Marcus is giving Piso’s child to the rulers.
wrong: Piso is giving child of Marcus to the rulers.
wrong: The rulers are giving Piso’s child to Marcus.
wrong: Marcus is giving the rulers to the child of Piso.
wrong: Marcus gives the child of the rulers to Piso.
wrong: any English sentence that makes no sense
Ancient Greek for Everyone
Sentences in Greek
• On an exam, you are graded on both parsing and translation.
• Each item of parsing information is worth one point:
ὁ Μάρκος δίδωσι τοῖς ἄρχουσι τὸν παῖδα τοῦ Πείσονος.
Μάρκος: nominative, masculine, singular (3 points)
δίδωσι: 3rd, singular, present, indicative, active (5 points)
ἄρχουσι: dative, masculine, plural (3 points)
παῖδα: accusative, masculine, singular (3 points)
Πείσονος: genitive, masculine, singular (3 points)
TOTAL: 17 points
Ancient Greek for Everyone
• At this point, the Ten Thousand are at the city of Gymnias (getting
close to the Black Sea), where:
ὁ ἄρχων τοῖς Ἕλλησιν ἡγεμόνα πέμπει
Xenophon Anabasis 4.7.19
Note: You are not required to parse words
that are given in the notes with the readings.
Ἕλλάς, -άδος ὁ Greek
ἡγεμών –όνος ὁ guide, leader
πέμπει (3rd sg) sends
Ancient Greek for Everyone
Sentences in Greek
• On an exam, you are graded on both parsing and translation.
• Each verb and noun is worth two points: one for its vocabulary
meaning and one for using it correctly in the sentence.
• All other words are worth one point each.
ὁ Μάρκος δίδωσι τοῖς ἄρχουσι τὸν παῖδα τοῦ Πείσονος.
Marcus is giving the child of Piso to the rulers.
TOTAL: 14 points
Ancient Greek for Everyone
• At this point, the Ten Thousand are at the city of Gymnias (getting
close to the Black Sea), where:
ὁ ἄρχων τοῖς Ἕλλησιν ἡγεμόνα πέμπει
Xenophon Anabasis 4.7.19
Note: You are required to translate the complete sentence
including the words that are given in the notes.
Ἕλλάς, -άδος ὁ Greek
ἡγεμών –όνος ὁ guide, leader
πέμπει (3rd sg) sends
Ancient Greek for Everyone
• Next
– Unit 3 part 1 Biblical reading.
– Unit 3 part 1 Classical reading.
– Be able to:
• read the sentences aloud
• parse each verb, noun and pronoun
• translate the sentences into English.