Ancient Greek for Everyone
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You have learned the basics of masculine and feminine nouns in Greek.
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Now we add neuter nouns, the final gender .

Ancient Greek for Everyone
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A NOUN indicates a person, place or thing.
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A Greek noun, however, normally communicates
THREE pieces of information:
–
Gender
–
Number
–
Case

Ancient Greek for Everyone
Building a Greek Noun
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All the nouns in this unit have been either masculine or feminine in gender and have used the same endings to indicate number and case.
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This part of the unit adds nouns that are neuter in gender .
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Grammatically, neuter means that the noun is “neither” masculine nor feminine .

Ancient Greek for Everyone
Building a Greek Noun
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The Neuter Law : two rules apply to all neuter words in
Greek.
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(1) The nominative singular and the accusative singular must be identical.
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(2) The nominative plural and the accusative plural must both end in a short α .

Ancient Greek for Everyone
Building a Greek Noun
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The Neuter Law : two rules apply to all neuter words in
Greek. The nouns in this unit meet the requirements as follows:
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(1) The nominative singular and the accusative singular add no ending to the stem.
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(2) The nominative plural and the accusative plural add short – α to the stem.

Ancient Greek for Everyone
Singular Plural
• Nominative –
• Genitive – ος
• Dative – ι
• Accusative –
• Nominative – α
• Genitive – ων
• Dative – σι
• Accusative – α
Building a Greek Noun
Third Declension Endings for neuter nouns

Ancient Greek for Everyone
Building a Greek Noun
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The stem ending – ματ is very common for neuter nouns.
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Recall that one of the noun endings involves adding a sigma to the stem (dat. plu. σι ) and that τ + σ = σ .
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Also recall that only a limited number of sounds may end a
Greek word (vowel, ν /ρ /ς ), so the final – τ must drop off in the nominative singular and accusative singular , since now there is no additional ending.
σωματ = “ body
”

Ancient Greek for Everyone
Singular Plural
• Nom.
(σωματ  )
σῶμα
• Gen.
σώματ ος
• Dat.
σώματ ι
• Acc.
(σωματ  )
σῶμα
• Nom.
σώματ α
• Gen.
σωμάτ ων
• Dat.
σώμα σι
• Acc. σώματ α
Building a Greek Noun declension of σῶμα -ατος τό body

Ancient Greek for Everyone
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VOCABULARY : Since the nominative singular displays variations in response to the sigma, nouns are listed in three parts:
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The nominative singular: so you always see exactly how this form appears.
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The genitive singular: so you can see the stem
(everything before the ending ος )
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The gender: the word τό indicates that these nouns are neuter.

Ancient Greek for Everyone
Examples of Vocabulary entries
• αἷμα -ατος τό blood
• ὄνομα -ατος τό name
• πνεῦμα -ατος τό wind, breath, spirit
• στόμα -ατος τό mouth
• σῶμα -ατος τό body

Ancient Greek for Everyone
Building a Greek Noun
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The word τό indicates the noun is neuter in gender .
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This is the neuter form of the definite article in Greek. As with masculine and feminine nouns, the article must match its noun in gender , number and case .
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The neuter definite article is the same as the masculine definite article, but with the Neuter Law applied.

Ancient Greek for Everyone
Singular Plural
• Nom. τό
• Gen.
τοῦ
• Dat.
• Acc.
τῷ
τό
• Nom.
τά
• Gen.
τῶν
• Dat.
τοῖς
• Acc. τά
Building a Greek Noun
The neuter definite article

Ancient Greek for Everyone
Singular Plural
• Nom. τὸ σῶμα
• Gen.
τοῦ σώματ ος
• Dat.
τῷ σώματ ι
• Acc.
τὸ σῶμα
• Nom.
τὰ σώματ α
• Gen.
τῶν σωμάτ ων
• Dat.
τοῖς σώμα σι
• Acc. τὰ σώματ α
Building a Greek Noun declension + article of σῶμα -ατος τό body

Ancient Greek for Everyone
Building a Greek Sentence
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Neuter nouns derive from collective feminine nouns, and so originally they were always singular .
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This habit persists in ancient Greek in a strange way. Whenever a neuter noun is the subject of a sentence, the verb is 3 rd person singular (even if the neuter subject is plural):
– τὸ σῶμα δείκνυσι.... “The body shows…”
– τὰ σώματα δείκνυσι....
“The bodies show…”

Ancient Greek for Everyone
Unit 3 part 3 Vocabulary: DCC Classical
• αἷμα -ατος τό blood
• γράμμα -ατος τό letter
• ὄνομα -ατος τό name
• πνεῦμα -ατος τό wind, breath, spirit
• πρᾶγμα -ατος τό thing; (pl.) circumstances, affairs, business
• στόμα -ατος τό mouth
• σχῆμα -ατος τό form, appearance
• σῶμα -ατος τό body
• χρῆμα -ατος τό thing, (pl.) money

Ancient Greek for Everyone
Unit 3 part 3 Vocabulary: NT (New Testament)
• αἷμα -ατος τό blood
• θέλημα -ατος τό will, wish, desire
• ὄνομα -ατος τό name
• πνεῦμα -ατος τό wind, breath, spirit
• ῥῆμα -ατος τό word, saying
• σπέρμα -ατος τό seed, offspring
• στόμα -ατος τό mouth
• σῶμα -ατος τό body

Ancient Greek for Everyone
Unit 3 part 3 Vocabulary: Core
• αἷμα -ατος τό blood
• ὄνομα -ατος τό name
• πνεῦμα -ατος τό wind, breath, spirit
• στόμα -ατος τό mouth
• σῶμα -ατος τό body