EXERCISES

abbreviations    cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative    voices: active, middle, passive    adjectives    adjuncts    adverbs    anomalous nouns

article    assimilation    augment    canonical conjugation    composite verbs    contracted verbs    eimi be    eimi go    exercises    for dummies

grammatical introduction    grammatical terms    keystoexercise    moods: indicative, subjunctive , optative, imperative, infinitive, participle

morphemes oida phases: durative, aorist, future, perfect reading Greek: 1 2 reduplication script stem synopsis noun synopsis verb

In one way or another the prospective reader of Greek will have to acquire a skill in determining the grammatical forms, unless the text is so simple as to unveil itself solely by the sense of the words. The following exercises are designed to start one off on the road to this proficiency; the full ability will grow with reading whatever text it is one wants to interpret, for hardly ever will it prove possible to get at the meaning without troubling oneself over the forms.

These exercises are of a type that has fallen from grace in contemporary didactics. They were discontinued, if you ask me, not because they were intrinsically inefficient, but owing to an increasing tendency to present youthful learners with material that would not drive them away from acquiring languages by excess of fatigue, mental and manual, causing revulsion and a run on subjects less discouraging.

But here the situation is different from what is touched on above: this is not for youthful learners and the amount of rote exercise is going to be considerably less than it used tot be. One will have to content oneself with just enough separate-form-exercise to get (re)acquainted with the the systems of noun and verb morphology

and from there one will be taken through a course of isolated phrases – all somehow culled from actual ancient Greek literature or epigraphy – progressing from simple to complex and designed to guide the learner into reading real ancient Greek as quickly as possible; in these phrases separate attention will be given to certain aspects of syntax, as for example the genitive, the optative etc.

Words given in bold type are frequent enough to be learned by heart – for those who seriously intend to master the language.

The KEYS will give you the opportunity to evaluate the results. The translations of isolated phrases are more to be regarded as pointers to understanding than as rigid obligatory reproductions, especially in the longer utterances.

Both exercises and keys will be added to as and when the material is available. The exercises and corresponding keys will be distinguished by numbers and themes: such as 1. Isolated substantive forms 2. Isolated adjective forms etc. etc.

When you have completed the exercises, you can check by consulting the keys to exercises.

For this first exercise another look at noun formation might repay the effort. Exercise 1. Isolated substantive forms. All you need to do is state number(s) and case(s) of the forms. Don’t forget to verify which type of substantive the given form is from; this can be done by consulting the preceding list of substantives. The typification followed is Liddell and Scott’s.
ἅρμα, ατος, τό chariot βασιλεύς king γένος, τό birth δοῦλος, ὁ slave δῶρον, τό gift ἔρις, ιδος, ἡ quarrel	Ζεύς Zeus Ἡρακλῆς Heracles θάλαττα, ἡ sea θυγάτηρ, τρος daughter ναῦς, ἠ ship	νεανίας young man πόλις, ἡ city πολίτης, ὀ citizen Σωκράτης Socrates χώρα, ἡ land, area

Now determine the following cases of these words:

1. ἅρματος
2. γένος
3. δοῦλος
4. δῶρα
5. χώρα
6. ἔριδα

7. Ἡρακλῆς
8. θαλάττης
9. πολίτης
10. Σωκράτη
11. βασιλῆς
12. Διί

13. βασιλέα
14. γένους
15. δούλους
16. ναῦσιν
17. πόλιν
18. πόλεις

19. δώροις
20. δούλῳ
21. νηί
22. θυγάτερας
23. χώρας
24. νεανίας

Exercise 2. Isolated adjective forms.

State with which gender(s), number(s), case(s) of substantives the following forms of the adjectives below may be considered to agree.

ἀγαθός, ή, όν   good
ἀληθής, ές   true
ἄλογος, ον   unreasoning
ἁπλοῦς, οῦν simple
ἄφρων, ον unthinking
δεινός, ή, όν   clever

ἕκων, ἕκουσα, ἕκον wittingly
εὐδαίμων, ον   fortunate
ἰσχυρός, ά, όν   strong
μέγας   big
νεός, ά, όν   new
πᾶς, πᾶσα, πᾶν all, every

πολύς much, many
πολύτροπος, ον   wily
σαφής, ές   distinct
ταχύς, εῖα, ύ   swift
χαρίεις, εισα, εν graceful

Now determine these forms. [Example: εὐδαίμονα >sg Ac M+F&pl N+Ac Ne.]

1. πολύτροπον
2. εὐδαίμων
3. ἀγαθά ¹⁾4. ἰσχυρά
5. ἀληθοῦς
6. μέγας ²⁾ 7. δεινάς

8. μεγάλους ²⁾9. ἁπλοῦς
10. πολύ ³⁾11. μεγάλης ²⁾12. σαφής
13. ἄφρονος
14. ἀγαθός ¹⁾

15. ἄφρονες
16. ἀληθές
17. νέαι
18. ταχέα ⁴⁾19. ταχεῖα ⁴⁾20. ἑκούσῃ ⁵⁾ 21. ἰσχυρᾷ

22. σαφῆ
23. δεινή
24. χαρίεισαν
25. πᾶν ⁵⁾26. εὐδαιμόνων
27. ἕκων ⁵⁾ 28. σαφέσι

¹⁾ cmp ἀμείνων, spl ἄριστος ²⁾ cmp μείζων, spl μέγιστος ³⁾ cmp πλέων, spl πλείστος ⁴⁾ cmp θᾶσσων, spl τάχιστος ⁵⁾ no cmp & spl.

As an extra exercise one could try to make connections of these forms to the substantive forms of exercise 1.
As a second extra exercise one could make the corresponding forms of comparative and superlative of these adjectives.

For the next exercise a close look at canonical conjugation will certainly repay the effort.

Exercise 3.
Verb forms. We start with so-called “verba pura”, that is verbs that have two endearing qualities: 1) they are canonical and so follow the conjugation set out on pp. 82-83, 2) they connect the elements of the synopsis to their stems without any further changes; this produces the easiest forms to analyse and interpret. Be sure to pay attention to forms that admit more interpretations than one, the italicized forms of pp. 82-83.

I have chosen 7 verbs that allow more or less meaningful translations for Active, Middle and Passive.

	Active	Middle	Passive
παιδεύω	to educate, train, teach	to ----- (for) oneself	to be/get -----
φυγαδεύω	to banish	to ----- oneself	to be/get -----
ἐάω	to allow	to ----- oneself	to be -----
θηράω	to hunt, seek after	to ----- (for) oneself	to be -----
λύω	to loosen, free	to ----- (for) oneself	to be/get -----
τρώω	to wound, injure	to ----- oneself	to be/become ------
τίω	to honour	to ----- oneself	to be -----

[Naturally these verbs are shown in the lexicon to have many more shades of meaning] [In translating 3^rd singulars “she” and “it” may be substituted for “he”]
Now determine and translate these forms [for the correct translation one will have to avail oneself of the information contained in “phases”, “indicative”, “subjunctive”, “optative”, “imperative”, “infinitive”, “participle”]:

1) παιδεύομεν
2) ἐφυγάδευον
3) εἴασαν
4) θηράσετε
5) τετρωκέναι
6) ἐτετίκεσαν
7) λύονται
8) ἐπαιδεύεσθε
9) φυγαδευθεῖεν
10) θηραθήσει
11) τέτρωσθε
12) ἐτετίμεθα
13) παιδεύοις
14) φυγαδεύειν
15) ἐάσαντες

16) θηράσων
17) λέλυνται
18) ἐτέτρωσο
19) τίεσθε
20) φυγάδευσον
21) ἐάσοντι
22) τεθήρακα
23) ἐπαίδευεν
24) ἐλελύμην
25) τρώουσιν
26) ἔτιον
27) παιδεύσαιεν
28) τεθήραται
29) ἐλελύκεσαν
30) φυγαδευθέντων

31) ἐαθήσομαι
32) τρώονται
33) ἐτίοντο
34) ἐπαίδευσω
35) ἐασόμενος
36) τεθηράκαμεν
37) ἐλέλυσο
38) τρωόμεθα
39) ἐτίου
40) παιδεύσασιν
41) φυγαδευθῇς
42) εἰάμην
43) ἐτεθήρατο
44) λύει
45) ἐτρώετο

46) τίσωμεν
47) παιδευόμενοι
48) ἐφυγαδευόμεθα
49) εἰάθην
50) θηραθησεσθαι
51) λέλυκεν
52) ἐτέτρωντο
53) τιέσθω
54) παιδεύετε
55) ἐφυγαδεύθης
56) ἐάσω
57) τεθηράμενος
58) λέλυσθαι
59) τέτρωμένας
60) λύου

Exercise 4.

Now I have composed some sentences which contain a number of the forms you have analyzed in Exercises 1, 2 and 3. Sometimes the sentences may seem rather devoid of meaning, because I have had so little forms to choose from: I did not start out with the sentences, but with the forms.

[εἰς followed by Ac: to
ἐκ followed by G: from, out of]

The object of the exercise is to interpret and translate the sentences.

1. παιδεύομεν τοὺς νεανίας τοὺς ἁπλοῦς.
2. τίσωμεν τὸν βασιλέα τὸν τῆς μεγάλης χώρας.
3. ἐπαίδευεν τοῦς δούλους.
4. φυγαδευθεῖεν οἱ ἄφρονες βασιλῆς ἐάσαντες ἐρίδα ἐν ταῖς ναῦσιν.
5. λύει ὁ μέγας Ἡρακλῆς τὴν πόλιν τοῦ γενοῦς τοῦ ἄφρονος.
6. νεαὶ πόλεις μὴ παιδεύσαιεν τὰς θυγατέρας εἰς ἐρίδα.
7. φυγάδευσον πᾶν τὸ γένος ἐκ τῆς χώρας.