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Croy Index: Vocabulary - Prosody - Verbs - Nouns - Adjectives - Nominals - Other Topics - Syntax List


3.21 Exercises: Practice Sentences

The following notes should help you in understanding the Practice Sentences provided by Croy:


1 ἔχομεν βασιλείαν δόξης καὶ ἀκούομεν φωνὴν ἀληθείας.

Very often you can translate a genitive noun phrase using an "of" construction in English (e.g., "the kingdom of glory"), but sometimes you might prefer to translate the genitive as an adjective ("the glorious kingdom"). The choice is up to you, based on English idioms - this is not a question of Greek grammar but rather of English style, and how you choose to reflect your understanding of the meaning of the Greek using English words. Notice also that ἀληθείας could be either genitive singular OR accusative plural; the forms are identical. How do you know from the context of this sentence that ἀληθείας has to be genitive singular?

2 γινώσκουσιν ὅτι βλέπει αδελφὸς θάλασσαν.

This sentence can help you see the freedom of Greek word order. The use of the nominative case lets you know for sure that αδελφὸς is the subject of the verb. Don't be fooled by the fact that the subject can follow the verb in Greek!

3 καρδία ἀδελφῆς οὐ θέλει πιστεύειν ὅτι ἔχετε ζωήν.

This sentence shows an example of a pattern that you have not seen before: the subordinate clause ( ὅτι ἔχετε ζωήν) is introduced by an infinitive, πιστεύειν, rather than by a finite verb.

4 ἐκκλησία γινώσκει ὥραν δόξης καὶ ἡμέραν ἀληθείας.

In the previous sentences, you saw that the verb γινώσκει could be used to introduce a subordinate clause. In this sentence, you see how the verb can also take a direct object. Notice again that ἀληθείας could be either genitive singular OR accusative plural; the forms are identical. How do you know from the context of this sentence that ἀληθείας has to be genitive singular?

5 θέλετε λέγειν ἀλήθειαν βασιλείᾳ;

Here is your first sentence with a noun in the dative case! As often, the dative is being used to express the indirect object of the verb. In English, the indirect object of a verb is usually expressed by a prepositional phrase introduced by "to" (e.g. "to speak to the kingdom").

6 ἔχουσιν ἀδελφὸς καὶ ἀδελφὴ γῆν καὶ θέλουσιν ἔχειν βασιλέιας.

Notice that once again in this sentence the subject of the verb (in the nominative case) comes after the verb, rather than preceding the verb as it must in English. Note also that this is a compound subject, hence the plural verb. Notice also that βασιλέιας could be either genitive singular OR accusative plural; the forms are identical. Based on the context of this sentence, what is the correct identification of this form?

7 οὐ διδάσκομεν ἀδελφὴν λύειν · διδάσκομεν καρδίαν πιστεύειν.

In the previous lesson, you learned about complementary infinitives used with the verb θέλω. In this sentence, you can see how a different verb, διδάσκομεν, can take a complementary infinitive along with a direct object in the accusative case. This construction is equivalent to the English idiom "to teach somebody to do something".

8 γράφω ἐκκλησίᾳ ὅτι οὐ γινώσκει ἀλήθειαν.

The subject of the verb γράφω is implied, but it is unambiguous: the subject is "I". The subject of γινώσκει, however, is implied (there is no noun in the nominative case to serve as the subject), and for a third-person verb, an implied subject is ambiguous. The subject could be he, or she or it - and you can only determine the subject of this verb from context. Given the context, what or who do you think is the subject of the verb γινώσκει?

9 θέλεις γινώσκειν ζωὴν καὶ βλέπειν ἡμέραν δόξης;

Note that this sentence is a question, as indicated by the question mark at the end of the sentence. There is nothing in the word order to indicate that this sentence is a question, so you need to pay careful attention to the punctuation.

Given that punctuation is a relatively late innovation in the history of writing, you can imagine that in some ancient texts it could be hard to tell whether a sentence should be understood as a question or as a declaration statement! In spoken language, intonation is often used to indicate that a sentence is a question - but intonation is a feature of language which is not reflected in the writing system.

10 γῆ καὶ θάλασσα γινώσκουσιν ὅτι καρδίαι οὐ πιστεύουσιν.

Note that the compound subject here takes a plural verb, even though the nouns γῆ and θάλασσα are both singular.

11 ἀδελφαὶ λέγουσιν ἐκκλησίαις ὅτι οὐ βλέπουσιν ὥραν ἀληθείας. ἐκκλησίαι ἀκούουσιν;

Notice again here that it is only the question mark which indicates that the second sentence is a question rather than a declarative statement. Notice again that ἀληθείας could be either genitive singular OR accusative plural; the forms are identical. How do you know from the context of this sentence that ἀληθείας has to be genitive singular?

12 λέγει φωνὴ ὅτι ἔχομεν ὥραν ζωῆς.

Note the word order: the subject of the verb λέγει comes after the verb, rather than preceding it. You know that φωνὴ must be the subject because it is in the nominative case, and the only thing a noun in the nominative case can be is the subject of a verb.


Biblical Greek Online. Laura Gibbs, Ph.D. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. You must give the original author credit. You may not use this work for commercial purposes. If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under a license identical to this one. Page last updated: April 9, 2005 8:06 PM


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