Assignment 1: Read your first phrases

Look carefully at this small word bank.  

Don't try to memorize the forms exactly. Instead, try to draw a meaningful connection between each word and its meaning, and between the different words. 

For example, 

1. The words that sound like hey and ho both mean 'the'. 

2. Logos is like the word logo in English, which is often a one-word representation of a firm. 

3. The word agape is almost common parlance in Western culture as being some special kind of love, but in Greek it's just a word for love. 

4. Patros looks similar to some cognate English words, like patriarchy (where a father rules a family) or patricide (where someone kills their father). 

You may have noted as well that the shortest words seem to mean 'the' (and this will often be true). 

And words that end in -οῦ seem to mean 'of' something—but not exclusively those, because patros means 'of father'.

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However it makes sense to you to accomplish it, you want to begin developing a semantic network of meanings based on their similarities and differences.

Again, don't aim for memorization, aim for building connections. 

Even when you have a hard time remembering them, these connections will be the kind of memory that last and makes it possible for you to read Greek for yourself. 

When you feel ready, try answering the following quiz questions. 

You will put together a few of these words into real phrases taken from the Greek Bible. 

Don't worry if your wording doesn't match the answers exactly.

Make it your goal to see the meaning of the larger unit, the phrase. 

Note: When combining words, you don't need to repeat function words like 'of'

• Something like τοῦ  πατρός as 'of the of father' doesn't make much sense 
• So τοῦ  πατρός should just be 'of the father'