CHAPTER TWO

Basic sentences

2.1 THE PRESENT TENSE OF 

Mark 11.4:   8  – they untie him

Luke 13.15:    8  – he unties his ox
The Greek word  (‘I untie’) has different endings to show who is
doing the untying –  
they untie and 
he unties. The one
Greek word means more than one English word –  means ‘he’ plus
‘unties’.

The Present tense of the Greek verb , which means ‘I untie’, is as follows.1

Grammatical Greek English

Label Either Or
1st person singular  I am untying I untie
2nd person singular   You are untying You untie
3rd person singular  He, she or He, she or
it is untying it unties
1st person plural  We are untying We untie
2nd person plural   You are untying You untie
3rd person plural   They are They untie
or  untying

Notes
• 2nd singular and plural: Notice the distinction between   and
  Greek distinguishes between ‘you’ meaning one person (‘you

1
? Person?
See it in English
Section 5
Page 246

Technically, this is the Present Indicative Active of  We will meet other tenses than the
Present in Chapter 6, other moods than the Indicative in Chapter 7, and other voices than the
Active in Chapter 15. However, don’t worry about these distinctions at the moment – you have
to walk before you can run!

21
22 The Elements of New Testament Greek

singular’ –  ) and more than one person (‘you plural’ –  ) in a way that
modern English does not. Keep thinking, ‘Is this “you singular” or “you plural”?’
• 3rd singular: The 3rd singular means ‘he’, ‘she’ or ‘it’. The context will usually
reveal which is appropriate.
• 3rd plural: Notice the two possibilities –   or  . Either form is
acceptable, though the form including the ‘optional ’ is more common.

2.1.1 Endings, roots and conjugations

Each of these six forms of  can be split into two parts:

the stem: 
the ending: GU G U G U GU G U G 

The stem denotes the basic meaning of the word:  meaning ‘untie’.
The ending indicates the person (who is doing the action):

G means I G means we

G  means you singular G  means you plural
G means he, she or it G  means they

Put stem and ending together and we have a KEY GRAMMAR

One Greek word often means
single Greek word (e.g. ) which means
more than one English word
several English words (‘we are untying’).

?
A pattern of the forms of a verb (a particular set of endings on Verb?
the stem) is called a conjugation. We have now learnt the Present See it in English
(Indicative Active) conjugation of  You can now conjugate it Section 1.2
(i.e. go through the pattern in order). Page 242

The good news is that almost all Greek verbs follow the same pattern
(conjugation) as . Thus if you know that ‘I say’ is  and ‘I see’ is ,
then you can work out all six forms of each verb:

 I am saying  I am seeing

  You (sing.) are saying   You (sing.) are seeing
 He, she or it is saying  He, she or it is seeing
 We are saying  We are seeing
  You (pl.) are saying   You (pl.) are seeing
  They are saying   They are seeing
 Basic sentences 23

2.1.2 Meaning of the Present tense KEY GRAMMAR

Once you know the Present
The Present tense in Greek signifies an action: of , you know the Present
– taking place in the present of almost every Greek verb2
– which is either (a) process or (b)
undefined in nature.
Thus  can be translated in English as either: (a) I am untying, or (b) I untie.
Which is the more appropriate depends on the context.

PRACTICE 2.1

Translate
1.   4. #:  7. She is throwing.
2.    5.  8. They have.
3.   6.   9. We are leading.

Hint
The vocabulary you need is listed on page 29 at the end of the chapter. Verbs
are always given in their most simple form in a vocabulary list or dictionary
(e.g. the 1st person singular form of the Present Indicative Active).

2.2 THE PRESENT TENSE OF G VERBS ( )

1 John 1.10: $    8  – we make him a liar

  (I make/do) has very slightly different endings from .
‘we make’ is   not  

KEY GRAMMAR
There are many Greek verbs whose stem ends Greek grammar is very
in , such as  G ‘I love’. They are called - regular, but with many minor
verbs. These verbs are regular and have exactly adjustments when certain
letters combine
the same endings as  However, the weak

2
 is chosen as the model word because it is completely regular in all its forms, and it is
short – try chanting the forms of   and you will see the difference!
24 The Elements of New Testament Greek

exposed  at the end of the stem combines with the vowel at the beginning of
the ending. This combining or contracting of the vowels means these verbs are
also known as ‘contract verbs’.

The rules for the contractions are:    → 

   → 
  any long vowel or diphthong is absorbed
(i.e. the  disappears without making any difference)

Thus, the Present Indicative Active of   is:

Actual Form The process of getting there

I am loving     →  
You are loving       →   
He, she or it is loving     →  
We are loving     →  
You are loving       →   
They are loving       →   
or  

Hint
- verbs like   are always listed in vocabularies or dictionaries in their
uncontracted form (i.e.  ) although in fact this form will never be found in
actual Greek (since it would have contracted into  ).

PRACTICE 2.2

Translate
1.    4.   7. They are speaking.
2.    5. %  8. She is doing.
3.   6.   9. You (pl.) seek.

2.3 THE NOMINATIVE AND ACCUSATIVE CASES

John 6.24: * B 2: – the crowd saw

Mark 6.34: *  2: – he saw a great crowd
The Greek word for crowd changes depending on how it fits into the
sentence – 2: when the crowd is doing the seeing, 2: when it is
being seen.
 Basic sentences 25

2.3.1 The forms of 

Nouns, like verbs, are inflected in Greek. This means that each noun will
have a stem and an ending – the stem denoting the basic meaning of the
word, and the ending communicating more precise information about
the function of the word in this particular sentence. ?
A noun occurs in one of five cases (forms used to indicate the word’s function
Inflection?
See it in English
Section 6
Page 246

in the sentence, such as being the subject), and in either the singular or the
plural (whether a noun is singular or plural is called its number, which
shouldn’t be confused with verbs being in the 1st, 2nd or 3rd persons). The
pattern of endings for a noun is called a declension: going through them is called
declining it. While most verbs conjugate like , nouns fall into in a number
of different declensions. We will first learn the declension of , which
means ‘word’.

Case Number
Singular Plural
Nominative  
 

?
Accusative
Noun?
See it in English
Using  as a pattern, you can work out the nominative and Section 1.1
accusative forms, both singular and plural, of many other Greek nouns Page 241
(some are listed in the vocabulary at the end of this chapter).

Examples
•  (brother): U U  U 
•   (lord):  U  U   U  

PRACTICE 2.3.1

What case and number are the following words in?

1.   3. 8  5. 2: 7. 
2.  4. A 6.  8. 
26 The Elements of New Testament Greek

2.3.2 The meaning of the nominative KEY GRAMMAR

and accusative cases Nominative – Subject
Accusative – Object
In English, word order distinguishes subject

?
from object – the subject comes before the verb, the object Subject and object?
after the verb. Thus ‘the dog bites the man’ means something See it in English
rather different from ‘the man bites the dog’. Section 3
Page 245
In Greek, cases distinguish subject from object. Word order
does not matter. 3

2.3.3 Forming a sentence

We now need to put together a verb and one or
more nouns to form a sentence.

•  
•   
•   
– You (singular) see.
– You (singular) see an angel.
– You (singular) see angels.
? Sentence?
See it in English
Section 2
Page 244

Note: There is no word for ‘a’ (indefinite article) in Greek. Thus  means
‘word’ or ‘a word’ – the context will make it clear.

Once we use a noun (in the nominative) as the

subject of the sentence, we meet the important KEY GRAMMAR

concept of agreement. The different parts of the Verbs agree with their
subject in number
sentence have to fit properly together.

So, if the subject is singular, the verb must be singular, and if plural the verb
must be plural.

Hint
We do this in a limited fashion in English – he sees, they see

Also, if the verb is in the 1st or 2nd persons (I, we or you) there is unlikely to be
a separate subject (because the verb itself contains the ‘I, we or you’
information). However, if there is a separate subject (e.g. ‘the king’, ‘a girl’, ‘the
mountain’, ‘pigs’) then the verb will be in the 3rd person (he, she, it or they).

3
Or at least word order in Greek only communicates a difference in emphasis, not in meaning.
This is discussed further in Chapter 5, section 5.7.
 Basic sentences 27

Examples
•  
•   
•   
•   
•    
•    
– You see.
– An angel sees.
– You see an angel.
– A slave sees an angel.
– Slaves see an angel.
– Slaves see angels.

Hint
There are three steps to translation:
1. Work out the cases of the words.
2. Work out why the different words have the cases they do.
3. Translate the sentence accordingly.

•   #: 
1.   is nom. sing.  is acc. pl.
2.   is nom. because it is the subject  is acc. – the object
3. Sentence
‘A lord has slaves.’

   #: would mean exactly the same, since   is still

nominative and so the subject, and  accusative so the object. The change
in word order would not change the sentence’s meaning, although the stress
would have changed; there is more on word order and stress in Chapter 5
(section 5.7).

PRACTICE 2.3.3

Translate
1.     2: 6.     
2. %    7. A brother sees a house.
3.    8. People are watching.
4.     9. We love a world.
5.     10. God leads.

2.4 THE DEFINITE ARTICLE

In Greek the definite article (‘the’) also has to be declined. It must always agree
with the noun it is going with in case and number. It will normally come
immediately before the noun. (Note that because there is no indefinite article ‘a’
in Greek, the definite article is often referred to simply as ‘the article’.)
28 The Elements of New Testament Greek

Case Number
Singular Plural
Nominative B A
Accusative  

Examples
•     – You (singular) see the angel.
• A    – The angels see.
•      – A person sees the angels.

In comparison B  cannot be right, whatever is meant, since B does not

agree with .

2.5 SPECIAL USES OF THE DEFINITE ARTICLE

Normally the definite article is used in Greek in the same situations as ‘the’ in
English. However, there are three special uses of the article in Greek.

1. Names. Greek often uses the definite article before a name e.g. B ! 

David (not ‘the David’).
2. Abstract Nouns. Greek normally uses the definite article with abstract
nouns or generalisations, e.g. B   can mean ‘the person’, but can
also mean ‘humanity’ in general; similarly B  can mean ‘law’ (as a
concept) as well as ‘the law’.
3. God. Writers from a monotheistic perspective will also normally use the
article before  (similar to the distinction in English between ‘god’ and
‘God’).

PRACTICE 2.4 and 2.5

Translate

1. A A #:  * 5. B    

2.     6. We are seeking the Messiah.
3. B     8  7. The sons are speaking words.
4.   2: 8. The people love God.
 Basic sentences 29

VOCAB FOR CHAPTER 2

Nine verbs like 
 (67) – I lead, bring
 (428) – I hear, listen to
 (122) – I throw
 (133) – I see, watch
   (97) – I teach
#: (708) – I have, hold
 (258) – I take, receive
 (2354) – I say, speak, tell
 (42) – I untie

And six that are like  

%  (117) – I seek   (568) – I do, make
 (148) – I call    (70) – I keep
 (296) – I speak, say   (25) – I love, like

Fourteen nouns declining like 

 (175) – messenger, angel
 (343) – brother
  (97) – bread
 (124) – slave
 (1317) – god, God
  (186) – world
  (717) – lord, master, sir
 (330) – word, message
 (194) – law
* (114) – household, house
8  (273) – heaven
2: (175) – crowd
A (377) – son
  (529) – Christ, Messiah

The most common word in Greek

BU @U  (19867) – the

Plus two more that decline like  with similar but distinct meanings
  (550) – human being, person
 (142) – people (as in ‘a people’ or ‘a nation’)
(The plural of  means peoples or nations; for ‘people’ meaning ‘a number
of persons’ Greek would use the plural of  .)

Word helps
acoustics, ballistics/ball, didactic, call, glossolalia, philosophy, Philadelphia,
angel, theology, cosmology, dialogue/prologue, antinomian/astronomy/
Deuteronomy, Uranus, anthropology, laity.
30 The Elements of New Testament Greek

Exercises
Section A
1. #: A
2. B    
3.     
4.    
5.    B   2:
6. B         8 
7. B  4   
8.      
9. Christ says the words.
10. The crowd listens to the law.
11. You (s.) are setting free [use ] the slaves.
12. (Some) People are making bread.
Section B
1. A A  
2. A    
3. B 2:   %  
4.     
5. B    
6.     B   4
7.  ! 4 B   %  
8. B        
9. God has messengers.
10. I teach the sons.
11. We are seeking the lord.
12. You (pl.) are calling the brother.

4
Often when foreign words are used in Greek they are indeclinable. This is true of all seven
Hebrew words in the vocab for Chapter 1. A word being indeclinable means that its form does
not change, regardless of the case it is in. Thus, for example,   could be nominative or
accusative (though normally, being a name, it will appear with the definite article, thus:
B  U   ).