LESSON I                             MAQHMA A   EXERCISES TO LESSON I

par. 1: casus or form changes in sustantive nouns (nomina), 1

A substantive noun (Lat. nomen, plural: nomina) has several different forms. These different forms are called cases (Lat. casus). When a noun functions as the subject in a sentence, it will have another form than when it has a complementary function in a sentence, for example the function of the object. Compare e.g. the form of the Greek word for 'slave' (douloV) in the next two sentences:

In sentence 1 the noun douloV has the function of a subject. In this case, the ending of this word is -oV. This ending on -oV is called nominative or Lat. nominativus. If there is an article present, then this will be the article o (with spiritus asper, so pronounced as 'ho'). The form of the article is also the nominative.

In sentence 2, ton doulon has a complementary function. It is the object of the sentence. In this case, the noun has the ending -on. This ending gives the noun the form or case of the accusative or Lat. accusativus. If there is an article present, then this article will also be in the accusative case/form and this article form is ton. Form change, therefore, means a change of the ending of a noun.

By the way, words like douloV and jono~ are substantives or Lat. substantiva.

The verb forms ferei and ponei are put in the 3rd person singular of the verbs ferw/ferein and ponew/ponein. In word lists or dictionaries, you will find the first person singular of a verb, mostly ending on -w/-mi/-mai , but with the meaning of the infinitive (Lat. infinitivus) given.

The little word de is a particle. Particles are mostly small words wich form the structure of some thought direction within a sentence. The particle de separates sentences and parts of sentences and in doing so marks the transition into a new element in the story within one sentence or, as you will later discover, two sentences following eachother closely. This particle can be often translated by the word 'and'. Sometimes, de marks an antithesis and can then be better translated by 'but'. It is also possible, that a translation of this word can be better left out, if sentences, conjuncted in Greek don't necessarily need to be translated as conjuncted sentences in English. The particle de is never positioned as the first word of a sentence, mostly as the second or third word of a sentence. It can be easily found between an article and a substantive noun (Jo dev jono~).

par. 5: the particle  

gar is also a particle and like de, it never comes at the first position of a sentence. A translation by 'because' is in most cases very appropriate.

Mekking, T. & Oranje, H., Een Nieuwe Basis, Cursus Grieks voor Beginners, Amsterdam, 2001.