Nominative and Accusative

Greek 1 Ch. 6 Part 1

Case: “Words perform different functions in a sentence. These different functions are called ‘cases.’” Three in English: Subjective, Possessive, and Objective.

Case Endings: In Greek the case of a word is indicated by the “case ending.” Remember that even though word order determines meaning in English, that is not the case in Greek. In Greek the function of a noun is determined by its case ending, not where it appears in the sentence.

Stem: It is important to recognize that the stem of a noun is what carries the meaning of it. The case ending determines function. This is why it is necessary to be able to identify the stem of the noun that you are working with. In the following examples the case ending is ς because these words are nominative singular nouns. Identify the stem of the word: ἄγγελος, θεός, οὐρανος (heaven, sky)

Gender: “A noun is either masculine, feminine, or neuter. A noun has only one gender, and it never varies.” Nouns are not always the gender that you expect (cf. “natural gender” that we discussed in the English portion). Greek words follow “grammatical gender,” which means that there typically is not a connection between the gender and the meaning of a word. Ex. κόσμος is a masculine noun. Does this mean that the universe is male? It’s a ridiculous question, right?

There are certain patterns that indicate whether a noun is masculine, feminine, or neuter. Typically (there are some exceptions) nouns ending with ος are masculine, words ending with ον are neuter, and words ending in α or η are feminine. So, what grammatical gender is γραφή? What about σάββατον?

Number: Remember number refers to whether a word is singular or plural. There are several ways to indicate this in English (one way is by adding an “s”). In Greek it is indicated by the case ending. For example: the term λόγος is nominative singular masculine (word). How do I know that? Now, if we change the case ending from ς to ι making it λόγοι it becomes nominative plural masculine (words).

Declensions: Remember that a declension is a pattern of inflection (when a word changes form). In Greek there are three declensions. Now, which declension a word belongs to has no bearing on the words meaning. The declension only affect the form of the case ending.

First declension: nouns that have a stem ending with α or η (primarily feminine)

Second declension: nouns that have a stem ending in an ο (mostly masculine or neuter)

Third declension: nouns that have a stem ending with a consonant.

What declension does the term ἔργον belong to? What about the term βασιλεία? (Note: first declension nouns do not have a case ending for the subject of the verb. The stem stands by itself).

Cases: The different functions words perform in a sentence.

Nominative Case: Today we are going to cover two of the four Greek cases. The nominative case indicates the subject of the verb, so if a word is the subject of the verb that noun will be in the nominative case and have the nominative case ending. Ex. You’ve learned that the masculine nominative singular case ending is ς, so tell me, in the following example what word is the subject? Σὺ εἶ ὁ υἱός μου ὁ ἀγαπητός, ἐν σοὶ εὐδόκησα. Mk 1:11. ὁ υἱός is the subject of the verb since it is in the nominative case.

Accusative Case: If a word is the direct object of the verb, it will be in the accusative case. It will have an accusative case ending. The accusative singular masculine case ending is ν, so tell me, in the following sentence what word is in the accusative case (and is the direct object of the verb): πετρος βαλλέι τον ἀνθρωπον.

Word Order: The only way to determine the subject or direct object of a Greek verb is by the case endings. You will be tempted and naturally inclined to read a Greek sentence word by word from left to right like and English sentence following English rules. DO NOT DO THIS! If you do, your translation will make no sense.

Ex. Καὶ εὐθὺς τὸ πνεῦμα αὐτὸν ἐκβάλλει εἰς τὴν ἔρημον. Mk 1:12.

Word by word this would be “And immediately the Spirit him cast out into the wilderness.”

Now, paying attention to the case endings, we note that the αὐτὸν is in the accusative case, making it the direct object of the verb ἐκβάλλει, and πνεῦμα is in the nominative case (first declension noun) making it the subject of the verb.

Thus a proper translation would be: “And immediately the Spirit cast him out into the wilderness.”

Here’s another example from Mark 1:5a καὶ ἐξεπορεύετο πρὸς αὐτὸν πᾶσα ἡ Ἰουδαία χώρα καὶ οἱ Ἱεροσολυμῖται πάντες Mk 1:5. If I translated this just word by word ignoring case endings, then I would read: “and going out to him all the Judea country and the Jerusalem all…”

Now, paying attention to the case endings, I know that αὐτὸν is in the accusative case, πᾶσα ἡ Ἰουδαία χώρα is all in the nominative case, as well as οἱ Ἱεροσολυμῖται πάντες making these two phrases the subject of the verb ἐξεπορεύετο (going/coming out).

Thus a proper translation would be: “and all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him…”

As your textbook points out, we want to maintain the word order of the Greek as much as possible because there is a certain rhythm to the Greek sentence that we want to imitate; however, if your translation makes no sense you will have to move words around to make it understandable.

Above all, remember that case endings determine the function of the word in the sentence, not the word order.

Lexicons and Lexical Form: Lexicon simply refers to a dictionary. Nouns in lexicons are in the nominative singular form. For example, the lexical form of υἱόν (accusative singular) is υἱός. You need to remember this when you are attempting to look up the meaning of a noun. You cannot just look it up in the form that it appears in the text, you must look it up in its lexical form.

Case Endings: Form. We are now going to look at the paradigm for the case endings used by the first and second declensions, nominative and accusative.

Singular forms are on top, plural below. The order from left to right is “masculine, feminine, neuter.” The 2-1-2 that you see on the top simply marks the declension. Masculine and neuter follow the second declension while feminine follows the first. The dash means that no case ending is used and the stem stands by itself, and the underline means that the case ending joins with the final vowel (this is called “contraction” and will be discussed later).

2 1 2

Masculine Feminine Neuter

Nom S ς _ ν

Gen S

Dat S

Acc S ν ν ν

Nom PL ι ι α

Gen PL

Dat PL

Acc PL υς ς α

Hints: “The masculine and feminine case endings are often similar or even identical. In the nominative and accusative, the neuter is usually distinct from the masculine.”

“In the neuter, the nominative and accusative singular are always the same, and the nominative and accusative plural are always the same. Context will usually show you whether the neuter word is the subject or direct object.”

Practice: Identify the nominative and accusative nouns in this phrase

Καὶ ἔρχεται (comes) πρὸς αὐτὸν λεπρὸς παρακαλῶν (entreating) αὐτὸν καὶ γονυπετῶν (kneeling) λέγων (saying) αὐτῷ Mk 1:40.