Generic Grammar – Smyth on Inflection

• Inflection: changing the form of a word to change its use or function
• Cases in English: Subjective, Objective, Possessive
• Examples in English: who/whom, he/him/she/her/it, prince/princess
• What is inflected in nouns: Gender, Number
• Natural gender and grammatical gender
• Parts of Speech

Greek Grammar

• Greek Subjects and Verbs – subject implied in the verb
• Form of the Greek noun: Stem + Case Ending (Gender, Number)
• Declensions
  • 1st (alpha) stem ends in αλφα or ητα, usually feminine) – Smyth on 1st Declension
    • eta stems change to alpha in plural
  • 2nd (omicron) – stem ends in omicron, usually masculine or neuter – Smyth on 2nd declension
  • 3rd (consonant) – stem ends in consonant – Smyth on 3rd declension
  • Some nouns, e.g. some proper names, are indeclinable cf. chapter 1 of Matthew
• Nominative Case – subject of verb
  • “Who” or “What” did it?
• Accusative Case – object of verb
  • “What” or “Whom” was done?
• Word order is free. Function is determined by inflection, not word order.
• Lexical Form: of nouns is the nominative singular form
• Paradigm (παραδείγμα = pattern) of the noun must be learned to perfection
• First 3 Nouns rules

Definite Article

• Must always agree with what it modifies in case, gender and number (this is very helpful)
• Learn the paradigm (will be completed in chapter 7)
• Exegetical Insight: John 1.1 – Importance of the article

Assigments

• Continue to read Greek from the Greek New Testament
• Workbook exercise 6 on Nominative and Accusative cases, and the Definite Article
  • Chapter 6 and following is where the rubber meets the road: keep working at it, spend some extra time if you can.
  • You will get the most out of the workbook exercises hereon if you treat them like tests
• Prepare for quiz next week on everything through chapter 6, specifically:
  • All the vocabulary to date
  • The paradigms (case endings, definite article)
  • The noun rules we have learned to date
  • Functions of the Nominitive and Accusative cases
  • How to parse nouns (case, gender, number, lexical form, inflected meaning)
  • Note: No extra credit on next quiz
• Read and study chapter 7 on the Genitive and Dative cases.

The Lord’s Prayer

Πάτερ ἡμῶν ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς·
ἁγιασθήτω τὸ ὄνομά σου·
ἐλθέτω ἡ βασιλεία σου·
γενηθήτω τὸ θέλημά σου,
   ὡς ἐν οὐρανῷ καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς·
τὸν ἄρτον ἡμῶν τὸν ἐπιούσιον δὸς ἡμῖν σήμερον·
καὶ ἄφες ἡμῖν τὰ ὀφειλήματα ἡμῶν,
   ὡς καὶ ἡμεῖς ἀφήκαμεν τοῖς ὀφειλέταις ἡμῶν·
καὶ μὴ εἰσενέγκῃς ἡμᾶς εἰς πειρασμόν,
   ἀλλὰ ῥῦσαι ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ.
ὅτι σοῦ ἐστιν ἡ βασιλεία καὶ ἡ δύναμις καὶ ἡ δοξα εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας.
ἀμήν.