11.3 Larger units
The ability to recognise words that relate to one another is a feature of fluent reading. When learning a new language, even spotting two or three words that belong together represents a significant advance over reading word-by-word and can help to speed up the reading process. Here are a few simple groupings:
| a preposition and its noun | to the lighthouse |
| an adjective and its noun | green onions |
| two nouns, one in the genitive case | Martha’s brother |
| a subject, a verb and a direct object | the dog chased the cat |
In each of these examples in Greek, the word ending will help you make the connection. Let us take genitive cases as one example.
Activity 56
Find the Greek expressions for ‘this land of Thebans’ and ‘the daughter of Cadmus’. You may wish to refer back to the vocabulary provided earlier.
Euripides, Bacchae, 1.1−3.
English
I, son of Zeus, have reached this land of Thebans, Dionysus, whom the daughter of Cadmus, Semele, once bore, brought to childbirth by lightning-bearing flame.
Greek
ἥκω Διὸς παῖς τήνδε Θηβαίων χθόνα
Διόνυσος, ὃν τίκτει ποθ᾽ ἡ Κάδμου κόρη
Σεμέλη λοχευθεῖσ᾽ ἀστραπηφόρῳ πυρί
transliteration
hēkō Dios pais tēnde Thēbaiōn chthona
Dionysos, hon tiktei poth' hē Kadmou korē
Semelē locheutheis' astrapēphorōi pyri
Answer
ἥκω Διὸς παῖς τήνδε Θηβαίων χθόνα
Διόνυσος, ὃν τίκτει ποθ᾽ἡ Κάδμου κόρη
Σεμέλη λοχευθεῖσ᾽ ἀστραπηφόρῳ πυρί
hēkō Dios pais tēnde Thēbaiōn chthona
Dionysos, hon tiktei poth' hē Kadmou korē
Semelē locheutheis' astrapēphorōi pyri
Activity 57
What do you notice about the word order of these phrases? Do you detect a pattern?
Answer
The noun in the genitive case is ‘sandwiched’ between the article ‘the’ (or a similar word like ‘this’) and its noun. Although article and noun are separated, they agree with each other in gender, number and case, which helps to tie them together. This ‘sandwich’ construction – definite article + noun in the genitive case + noun agreeing with the definite article – is common in Greek.
Key point
The study of small units like words and word endings is a central part of learning Greek.
But reading a Greek text also involves seeing how the words fit together into larger units like phrases, clauses and indeed whole sentences. The word endings can help you spot these larger units, by allowing you to see which words relate to one another. If you can start to blend these approaches together – the small and the large – then you really will be on your way to reading Greek like an ancient Greek!