Infection: Sounds like a complicated word, but it is not. Infection just means the changes words go through to show what part they play in the sentence. Many languages are inflected. Greek is highly inflected. English was at one time. English had such an influx of many other languages all with different word endings that word order developed to show what was subject and direct object instead of endings. Pronouns (he, she, we, they) are one of the few things left in English that shows inflection (word changes for the part a word plays in the sentence). Thus we will illustrate with English pronouns to show how inflection works.
Pronouns come in masculine (he), feminine (she), neuter (it).
(Neuter is word that means "neither of each". Here- neither masculine or feminine.)
Pronouns come in singular (one) - I, he, she, and plural (many) we, they.
Pronouns come in subject form- he, she, it, I, we, they and object form- him, her, us, them.
(Remember the subject comes before the verb and the object after the verb in English)
Pronouns come in possessive (belongs to) form- his, hers, its, our, their.
English speakers use these inflected pronoun forms correctly without giving it a thought. It is when someone uses them incorrectly that we notice. Below are some sentences showing how inflection works in our language.
Joe saw she/her. Which is correct? She or her? Since it comes after the verb, we need an object form so the correct answer is "her". Joe saw her.
She/her sang a song. Which is correct? She or her? Since is is before the verb, "she", the subject form, is correct. She sang a song.
His/him coat is lost. Coat is the subject, so "him" (an object form) is not right. "His" is possessive so that is the correct form. His coat is lost.
These are examples of inflection, word change, that happens depending on what part a word plays in a sentence.
Greek also has masculine, feminine, and neuter. It also has singular and plural, subject, object, and possessive forms.
Grammar Gender: In English as well as Greek we have words that show gender (masculine, feminine, neuter). Some things have natural gender: woman and girl are feminine; man and boy are masculine. Some things have no natural gender, as chair, car, boat which are things (an it- neuter). Yet we give things such as boats gender by calling it a she. We say, "She sailed wonderfully today". This is not natural gender but what I call grammar gender. This is also the way Greek works. Greek gives words which are things (neither male nor female) gender. In Greek some words have natural gender and some have grammar gender.
Some examples of grammar gender (using words you already know): arche (beginning) is feminine, logos (word) is masculine. An example of natural gender would be theos which is masculine, because theos is a word for a male god/God.
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Oldest known fragment of the Gospel of John which dates back to 125-150 AD.
Welcome
The purpose of this blog is to explore and learn about the Greek language in an easy, simple way. The goal is to open the Greek language to those desiring to understand the Koine Greek of the New Testament Bible or even those who desire to learn Classical Greek. The desire of this site is to open to anyone who wants to learn Greek, and all the gems and treasures to be found in this very expressive language.
Study suggestions: Bookmark which ever lesson you are currently on or print it out. All lessons can be found in the Blog Archive which is lower right on any page. To start learning click here.
Study suggestions: Bookmark which ever lesson you are currently on or print it out. All lessons can be found in the Blog Archive which is lower right on any page. To start learning click here.
John Ryland's Fragment P52 of the Gospel of John
Oldest known fragment of the Gospel of John which dates back to 125-150 AD.
About Me
- Ramona Davidson
- United States
- I have had a love of the Greek language since I learned it was the original language of the New Testament of the Bible. My love of it led to me taking four years Biblical/Koine Greek and 6 years of Classical Greek. My desire here is to open to all a simple way to learn this interesting, moving language. My credentials: BA in Classical Greek, BA in Bible and Religion, MA in Theology and Biblical Languages. If you wish to email me click on "view my complete profile" below and on the left side of the page is my email.