The alphabet, article and vocabulary
- • Spend time learning the alphabet – forming letters is difficult at first – try reading sentences aloud
• Learn the article and cases very carefully
• Look for English derivations as you learn vocabulary
Learning the declensions (nouns)
- First declension feminine nouns and second declension masculine and neuter nouns have the same endings as the article, so once you have learned the article they should be easy.
- Neuter nouns have the same ending in the nominative, vocative and accusative.
- Third declension nouns are more variable, but learning the pattern of the endings will help.
The order of words
• The order of words is important in an English sentence.
• Normally, a sentence is ordered like this: subject verb object.
• For example, the man chases the lion.
• The man is the subject. He is the one who is chasing the lion. He is doing the action, so we call him the subject.
• The word “chases” is a verb. It is a doing action and is sandwiched between the subject and the object. It is the linking word between them.
• The lion is the object. The lion is the one being chased. It is having the action done to it, so we call it the object.
• In English, if we change the order of the sentence we change the meaning.
• For example, the lion chases the man.
• The lion is now the subject because it is doing the chasing and the man is the object because it is being chased. We have swapped over the order of the subject and object so we have changed the meaning. A man chasing a lion is completely different to a lion chasing a man.
• In Greek, we can change the order of the sentence without changing the meaning.