Greek

Here is some introductory information that you might find useful before you start the Beginner’s Greek course this September! It is also interesting to know even if you are not intending to take Greek officially, but just want to find out a bit more.

Alphabet

Greek letter	Lower case	Upper case	English equivalent	Pronunciation
alpha	α	Α	a	short/long a
beta	β	Β	b	b
gamma	γ	Γ	g	g, as in go n, as in ink/lynx after κ, χ, ξ, γ
delta	δ	Δ	d	d
epsilon	ε	Ε	e	short e
zeta	ζ	Ζ	sd	as in wisdom
eta	η	Η	e	long e, as in air
theta	θ	Θ	th	th
iota	ι	Ι	i	short/long i
kappa	κ	Κ	c	hard c, as in skill
lambda	λ	Λ	l	l
mu	μ	Μ	m	m

nu	ν	Ν	n	n
xi	ξ	Ξ	x	x
omicron	ο	Ο	o	short o
pi	π	Π	p	p
rho	ρ	Ρ	r	r
sigma	σ, ς	Σ	s	s, as in sing, lesson
tau	τ	Τ	t	t, as in stop
upsilon	υ	Υ	u, y	long/short u
phi	φ	Φ	ph	f, as in foot
khi	χ	Χ	ch	k, as in kill/loch
psi	ψ	Ψ	ps	as in lapse
omega	ω	Ω	o	long o, as in saw

Breathings

• You’ll notice there’s no h in the alphabet
• Words that start with a vowel in Greek all have breathings on the first letter, or the second if they start with a dipthong (a dipthong are two vowels together)
  • A smooth breathing: ἀ, denotes the absence of an ‘h’ sound
  • A rough breathing: ἁ, denotes the presence of an ‘h’ sound
• All words beginning with ρ and υ take a rough breathing
  • ῥοδον (rose)
  • ὕδωρ (water)

Dipthongs

ᾳ	as long a
αι	as in high
αυ	as in how
ει	as in fiancee
ευ	as in cockney belt
ῃ	as in η
ηυ	as ευ
οι	as in boy, coin
ου	as in pool
υι	close to French huit
ῳ	as ω

Verbs

• A verb in Greek has a tense, a person, a voice, and a mood
  • Tense = time
  • Person = I, you, he/she/it, etc.
  • Voice = the relationship between verb and subject
  • Mood = expresses speaker’s attitude toward what they are saying (I know its confusing, once you’ve met it it will make more sense)

Present Active Indicative Verb Conjugation

• stem + ending = conjugated verb
• παυω I stop, stem παυ-

1st Person Singular	παυω	I stop
2nd Person	παυεις	You stop
3rd Person	παυει	he/she/it stops
1st Person Plural	παυομεν	we stop
2nd Person	παυετε	you (pl.) stop
3rd Person	παυουσι (ν)*	they stop

Nouns

• Nouns decline and change their endings depending on what job they perform within a sentence
• They fall into specific patterns called declensions (a group of nouns that all follow the same pattern of endings)
• Nouns have a gender, number and case

Cases

“The boy greets the girl”

• Subject “the boy”
  • The subject is the noun that is doing the verb in the sentence. The subject is represented by word order in English; in Greek (as in Latin) it is show by putting the noun into the Nominative case.
• Verb “greets”
  • The verb is the action in the sentence
• Object “the girl”
  • The object is the noun that is having the action done to them. The object is show by putting the noun into the Accusative case.

1st Declension Feminine Nouns (Singular)

• The first declension is usually feminine
• There are three possible patterns of endings for feminine 1^st declension nouns
• stem + ending = declined noun

Case
Nominative	τιμη	θαλλασσα	χωρα
Accusative	τιμην	θαλλασσαν	χωραν

2nd Declension Masculine (Singular)

Case
Nominative	λογος
Accusative	λογον

2nd Declension Neuter (Singular)

Case
Nominative	δωρον
Accusative	δωρον

Definite Article

• The definitive article = ‘the’ vs indefinite article = ‘a’
• Greek nouns are almost always accompanied by a definite article when you are referring to a specific object (so its used almost all the time).
• They are also used with names.
• You leave them out when you are referring to an indefinite object.
• They decline just like a noun and follow a similar pattern to τιμη, δωρον and λογος.

Singular	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative	ὁ	ἡ	το
Accusative	τον	την	το

Reading a Greek Sentence

ὁ ἀγγελος την βοην ἀκουει.

1. First find your verb •ἀκουει

• identify the person and tense of the verb
• 3^rd person singular present

2. Find your nominative/subject by looking for nominative endings

• ὁ ἀγγελος 

3. Find your object/accusative by looking for accusative endings

• την βοην

4. Put it all together

• The messenger hears the shout.