Ancient Greek grammar
Ancient Greek grammar is the rules about how to speak and write the Ancient Greek language. Ancient Greek grammar is very complex. Many learners find it difficult to understand. Many words are inflected. This means that they change their form in different situations. Because Ancient Greek is highly inflected, word order is quite changeable. However, most word order follows the subject–object–verb pattern.
[change] Nouns
Nouns (including proper nouns) have five cases, three genders and three numbers. The cases are nominative, vocative, accusative, genitive and dative. The genders are masculine, feminine and neuter. The numbers are singular, dual and plural.
[change] Verbs
Verbs have four moods, three voices, three persons, seven tenses and other forms. The moods are indicative, imperative, subjunctive and optative. The voices are active, middle and passive. The persons are first, second and third. The seven tenses are present, future, imperfect, aorist, present perfect, pluperfect and future perfect.
Most tenses can have all four moods and all three voices. However, there are some exceptions. There is no future subjunctive or future imperative. There is also no imperfect subjunctive, optative or imperative.
[change] More reading
- Morwood, James (2001). Oxford Grammar of Classical Greek. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198604563.
