162

Grammar, Vocabularies and Exercises for Sections OneTwenty

179

179. Form

(a) All gen. plurals end in -.

(b) Gen. singulars of type 3 nouns/adjectives all originally ended in -.
Later contractions and other changes gave rise to forms in - and -.
(c) Gen. singulars in types 1 and 2 nouns/adjectives end (masculine)
in - and (feminine) in - (1a, 1c) or - (1b). Remind yourself of the
rules for these nouns (especially the rule) at 5657.
(d) 1d nouns like , are tricky: , is their
nom. form (not feminine gen. s.!) and their gen. s. is , .

EX E RC IS E S
Select from this list according to need.
8AC: 1. Give the meaning and gen. s. and pl. (with def. art.) of the following
1ac type nouns:
1.
2.
3.
4.

5.
6.
7.

8AC: 2. Give the meaning and gen. s. and pl. (with def. art.) of the following 1d
type nouns:
1.
2.

3.
4.

8AC: 3. Give the meaning and (where possible) gen. s. and pl. (with def. art.) of
the following 3d type nouns:
1.
2.

3.
4.

8AC: 4. Give the meaning and gen. s. and pl. (with def. art.) of the following
2ab type nouns:
1.
2.
3.
4.

5.
6.
7.
8.

8AC: 5. Give the meaning and gen. s. and pl. in all genders (with def. art.) of the
following type 2-1-2 adjectives:
1.
2. *
3.
4.

5.
6.
7.
8.

Downloaded from Cambridge Books Online by IP 137.132.123.69 on Thu Jun 27 15:11:50 WEST 2013.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511814129.003

179180

Grammar for Section 8AC

9.
10.

163

11. (N.B. irregular stem)

12. * (N.B. irregular stem)

* Position def. art. correctly with these words.

8AC: 6. Give the meaning and gen. s. and pl. (with def. art.) of the following
type 3c nouns:
1.
2.

3.

8AC: 7. Give the meaning and gen. s. and pl. of the following 3ab type nouns:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

8AC: 8. Give the meaning and gen. s. and pl. in all genders of the following type
3rd declension and 3-1-3 adjectives/participles:
1.
2.
3.
4.

5.
6.
7.

8AC: 9. Give the meaning and gen. s. and pl. (with def. art. [where meaningful])
of the following:
1.
2.
3.
4.

5.
6.
7.

8AC: 10. Give the meaning and gen. s. and pl. (with def. art.) of the following:
1.
2.
3.
4.

5.
6.
7.
8.

USES OF THE GENITIVE

180. The most common uses of the genitive are as follows:

(a) To correspond to English phrases introduced by of in such senses as:
n (i) possession, e.g.
o the house of [belonging to] Dikaiopolis

Downloaded from Cambridge Books Online by IP 137.132.123.69 on Thu Jun 27 15:11:50 WEST 2013.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511814129.003

164

Grammar, Vocabularies and Exercises for Sections OneTwenty

n (ii) a part, e.g.

180

few of [out of the whole number of] the men

n (iii) source or origin, e.g.

o o the words of [that come from] the fellow

the lawlessness of the Eleven
n (iv) content or material, e.g.

the crowd of [made up of] citizens, the citizen crowd

(b) With certain adjectives, e.g.

worthy of
full of
responsible for
(c) With certain prepositions, e.g.

away from
from (esp. a person)
out of, from
(in company) with
on, on part of, in the time of
through
for the sake of (comes after the noun)
concerning, about (also with acc.)

Note that and have quite different meanings depending on the

case they take:
+ acc. because of; + gen. through
+ acc. after; + gen. with

(d) With certain verbs, e.g.

I hear (a person)*
I condemn
I seize, take hold of (see (a)[ii] above)

* normally takes the acc. of the thing heard (e.g. words) but the gen. of the source of sound
(e.g. the person who is speaking):

I hear the words

I hear you speaking

Cf. [a](iii) above. You will find that other verbs of perception behave in a similar way.

(e) To express comparison

So far you have met comparisons of the type described at 158 i.e. constructed
with = than. Greek can also express comparison without by putting the
thing compared in the gen., e.g.

Downloaded from Cambridge Books Online by IP 137.132.123.69 on Thu Jun 27 15:11:50 WEST 2013.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511814129.003

180181

Grammar for Section 8AC

165

.
Socrates is wiser than this fellow.
(This can also be expressed as
.)
E XE RC IS E
8AC: 11. Translate into Greek using the prepositions and adjectives listed at (c)
above:
1. in company with (the) Socrates
2. away from the assembly
3. through the crowd
4. out of the ship
5. I condemn the man
6. I hear the women
7. I seize the citizen

8. worthy of (the) excellence

9. responsible for (the) lawlessness
10. in company with the herald
11. through the river
12. concerning the law
13. away from (the) Athens
14. out of the house

ALTERNATIVE COMPARATIVE FORMS

181. Revise the alternative comparative and superlative forms of and

:
Positive

Comparative

Superlative

(-)
(-)
better
(-)
(-)
worse

best


worst

or
good

or
bad
Meaning

The alternative comparative and superlative forms of carry slightly different nuances:
c and imply superiority in terms of physical or mental
ability
c and imply moral superiority
Form

The full declension of comparative adjectives is as follows:

Downloaded from Cambridge Books Online by IP 137.132.123.69 on Thu Jun 27 15:11:50 WEST 2013.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511814129.003