Basic Greek Sentences (Questions About Your Target Languages) Language Learning Forum

Basic Greek Sentences
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Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages

tharmon
Diglot
Newbie
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4 posts - 4 votes
Speaks: English*, Hindi
Studies: Ancient Greek

Message 1 of 4

18 July 2010 at 3:20am | IP Logged

I have just begun to study Koine Greek. I want to type a few example sentences to see if I am understanding. The places I learned the basics from didn't have notes on word order, so I guessed. I put a few options on 1 and 4. Sorry if these are all way wrong... Please correct my mistakes!

1.   Jesus is the Christ.
i)   ιησους εστι ο χριστος.
ii) ιησους εστι χριστος

2.   I am (a) man.
     ειμι ανθρωπος.

3.   Jesus is the Son of God.
     ιησους ο υιος θεου.

4.   I am his brother.
i)   ειμι αυτου αδελφος.
ii) ειμι αυτου o αδελφος.
iii) ειμι αδελφος αυτου.
iv) ειμι o αδελφος αυτου.

5. I love him.
   αγαπω αυτον.

6. I love the word of God.
   αγαπω λογον θεου.

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Captain Haddock
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Speaks: English*, Japanese
Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek

Message 2 of 4

18 July 2010 at 8:49am | IP Logged

I'm still a complete novice, but it seems to me that Ancient Greek is more likely to put the verb on the end:

Άνθρωπος ειμι.
Ἰησοῦς ὁ Χριστός εστι.

Edited by Captain Haddock on 18 July 2010 at 8:51am
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zyz
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Speaks: English*
Studies: Latin, Ancient Greek, Sanskrit

Message 3 of 4

19 July 2010 at 7:17am | IP Logged

That's the general case. But in copula sentences with an expressed subject (e.g. "x is
y"), order is often like the English.
e.g.
συ ει ο χριστος

Another thing to remember is that Greek uses the article "ο" in many more situations
than English uses the article "the."
e.g.
ιησους ο υιος του θεου
I don't know of any hard and fast rules, but only that as you read more you get more of
a sense of where they ought to be.

Lastly, in Koine Greek, leaving out the form of εστι seems to be less common than in
Classical.
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Ocius
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Speaks: English*, German, Ancient Greek
Studies: French, Latin, Sanskrit

Message 4 of 4

27 July 2010 at 5:35pm | IP Logged

The "typical" word order is, I believe, subject-object-verb. But honestly, word order doesn't matter too much. In
sentences with a copula, the subject will typically have the article while the predicate will not (though there are
exceptions to this).

The explanation given in Greek: An Intensive Course is:

Quote:

(a) ὁ Ὅμηρος τὸν ἀδελφὸν παιδεύει.
(b) παιδεύει ὁ Ὅμηρος τὸν ἀδελφόν.
(c) τὸν ἀδελφὸν ὁ Ὅμηρος παιδεύει.

The first example can be considered neutral word order. The subject more often than not does precede the verb,
as does the direct object. The second example puts greater emphasis on the verb; it would be a good answer to
the question, "What does Homer do?" The third example puts emphasis on the direct object; it would be a good
answer to the question, "Whom does Homer educate?"

Also, if you're going to type/write Ancient Greek... the breathing marks are important. Accents are, too, but
apparently most people don't teach/learn accents, for whatever reason.

Edited by Ocius on 27 July 2010 at 5:38pm

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