Introduction to English Nouns

Greek 1 Ch 5

Introduction to English Nouns

Inflection: When a word changes form.

A word might change form when it performs different functions in the sentence. Ex. Personal pronouns. When I am the subject, I use the term “I.” When I am the direct object, I would use the word “me.” “I am giving you the ball” vs. “Please give me the ball.”

A word might change form when its meaning changes. Ex. The personal pronoun changes depending on the referent. I could say: “My students turned in their homework. Andrew turned his in early, and Adelle turned hers in at the beginning of class.” I used the personal pronoun four times in that example but its form was different with each use because the referent was different in each.

Inflection: When a word changes form. What we discuss from this point forward can affect the form (inflection) of a word.

Case: Different functions words perform in a sentence.

There are three cases in English: subjective, objective, and possessive.

Subjective Case: If a word is the subject of the sentence, it is in the subjective case. The subject is that which does the action of the active verb. Ex. “He threw the ball.” The subject is usually the first noun (or pronoun) before the verb in the sentence; however, there are times where it can be a little difficult to determine. In these instances, ask the questions “who” or “what?” Who threw the ball? He threw the ball.

Possessive Case: If a word shows possession, it is in the possessive case. Ex. “Her job is so much fun.” “His dog is kind of ugly.”

Objective Case: If a word is the direct object, it is in the objective case. The direct object is the person or thing that is directly affected by the action of the active verb. This means that whatever the verb does, it does so to the direct object. Ex. “He threw the ball.” Ball here is the direct object. What is the direct object in this sentence: “The ball hit Carl in the face”? Carl.

The direct object usually follows the verb. In order to figure out what the direct object is, ask yourself “What?” or “Whom?” Ex. “He threw what?” The ball. “The ball hit whom?” Carl.

Number: Words can be either singular or plural, depending on whether there is one or more than one.

Gender: Some words (primarily pronouns), change their form depending upon whether they are referring to a masculine, feminine, or neuter object. Ex. “He (masculine) gave it (neuter) to her (feminine).” If the referent is not a feminine or masculine thing, then the word is neuter.

Natural Gender: a word takes on the gender of the object that it represents.

Declension: a pattern of inflection (when a word changes form). “English does not really have declensions anymore, but it does have patterns. Words forming their plural by adding ‘s’ are one pattern. A subpattern would be words adding ‘es.’ Another pattern is words that change their stem vowel, such as ‘goose’ to ‘geese’” (30).

Parts of Speech:

Noun: A word that stands for someone or something. What are the nouns in the sentence “Bob’s round stomach protrudes from under his shirt”? (Bob, stomach, shirt).

Adjective: A word that modifies a noun (or another adjective). What are the adjectives in the sentence “Bob’s round stomach protrudes from under his shirt”? (Round).

Preposition: A word that shows the relationship between two items (the relationship can be spatial or temporal). What is the preposition in the sentence “Bob’s round stomach protrudes from under his shirt”? (Under).

The word or phrase following the preposition is the object of the preposition (in our example the object of the preposition is “shirt”). The preposition, its object, and any modifiers, is a prepositional phrase (“under his shirt”) (You will be surprised how knowing this information will make your Bible reading and Gk translating much better).

Subject and Predicate: A sentence can be broken down into two parts. The term subject describes the subject of the verb and what modifies the subject. Predicate describes the rest of the sentence, including the verb, direct object, etc.

Definite article: “The.” Identifies one thing in particular, as opposed to just anything. Ex. “Here is the book you were looking for.” It’s not just any book, it is the book you were looking for.

Indefinite article: “a.” Ex. “Here is a book for you to read.” See how the indefinite article does not carry the same specificity. Your next question would be “What book?”

Greek Subject and Verbs

A note on verbs: The ending of the Greek verb indicates person and number. “I” and “we” are first person, “you” is second person, and everything else (“he, she, it,” and all nouns) is third person. λέγω means “I say.” The ω let’s us know that it is first person singular. λέγει means “he says” or “she says” or “it says.”

This means that a Greek sentence does not need to have an expressed subject (because it is expressed in the verb). However, when the Gk sentence does have an expressed subject you would not use the pronoun. Ex. ὁ ἀποστολος λέγει τον λογον “The apostle speaks the word.” NOT “The apostle, he speaks the word.” Now, how would you translate it if the subject (the apostle) was not expressed? “He speaks the word.”