Recognising and Explaining Greek Syntax

The half of the question nobody answers

Read the name of this task slowly, because it is doing something unusual. Your specification calls it recognition, analysis and EXPLANATION, and the question itself asks you to identify a grammatical form AND explain why it is used. ⚠️⚠️ THAT IS TWO QUESTIONS WEARING ONE QUESTION MARK. AND ALMOST EVERY STUDENT ANSWERS THE FIRST ONE, STOPS, AND COLLECTS ABOUT HALF THE MARKS. Here is what that looks like. The paper asks why τῆς χώρας (of the country) is in the case it is in. The student writes: because it is genitive. ⭐ THAT IS TRUE. IT IS ALSO NOT AN ANSWER, BECAUSE IT IS THE THING THE QUESTION ALREADY TOLD YOU. Naming the form is recognition. It is the easy half and you should still do it, accurately and in the right words. But the question asked WHY THAT FORM AND NOT A DIFFERENT ONE, and that is the half being marked. ⭐⭐ NOW THE GOOD NEWS, AND IT IS BETTER NEWS THAN IT SOUNDS. IN GREEK THE EXPLANATION HALF HAS ONE SHAPE, ALMOST EVERY TIME. A form is there because SOMETHING IN THE SENTENCE REQUIRES IT. Not because the writer felt like it. Not because it sounds better. Something else in that sentence, usually a word you can point at, forced that ending to be what it is. ⚠️ SO THE ANSWER TO "WHY IS THIS WORD IN THE DATIVE?" IS NEVER "BECAUSE IT IS THE INDIRECT OBJECT" ON ITS OWN. IT IS "BECAUSE THIS WORD HERE GOVERNS THE DATIVE". Find what requires the form, and the explanation half writes itself. ⭐ AND THE EVIDENCE IS OFTEN PRINTED IN YOUR OWN VOCABULARY LIST. Look at how the list writes its entries: εἰς + acc, ἐν + dat, ἀπό + gen, ἄρχω + gen, πιστεύω + dat. ⚠️ THOSE LITTLE ADDITIONS ARE NOT DECORATION. THEY ARE THE ANSWER TO A "WHY THIS CASE" QUESTION, SITTING IN THE DICTIONARY, WAITING. Carry one question through everything that follows: what in this sentence required that form to be this and not something else?

Three things that can require a form

When a form is not free to be anything else, one of these three is usually the reason.

Mark the two statements that follow

Tap the TWO statements that follow from a form being required by something else in the sentence.

• A full answer can usually point at the word that forced the form, rather than only naming the form
• For many prepositions and some verbs, the reason is printed in the vocabulary entry itself
• Naming the case correctly is the whole of what the question is asking for
• The writer chose the ending for the sound of the sentence, so there is no rule to give

Correct, and worth half the marks

Asked why τῆς χώρας stands in the genitive in ἄρχει τῆς χώρας (he rules the country), a student answers: because it is genitive. The statement is accurate. Why does it score so little?

• It repeats what the question already supplied. The question asked why that case is there, and the answer is that the verb ἄρχω governs the genitive
• The word is not actually in the genitive
• The answer is too short, and longer answers score better on this question
• The student should have translated the phrase into English first

Five words for describing a form

Five terms, each defined by what it is. Using them precisely is the recognition half done properly.

Match each phrase to what requires its form

Two that follow from government

Select the TWO statements that follow from forms being required rather than chosen.

• For prepositions and for verbs like ἄρχω + gen and πιστεύω + dat, the explanation is already printed in the vocabulary entry
• When a participle phrase is in the genitive because nothing in the main clause governs it, that absence is itself the explanation
• Naming the case, tense and person accurately is sufficient for full marks
• Where no rule is obvious, the safest answer is that the writer preferred the sound of that form

Writing the explanation half

Ten marks, and they are gettable, because this question is more predictable than almost anything else on the paper. ⚠️ A SHAPE THAT WORKS ON NEARLY ANY FORM YOU ARE ASKED ABOUT. SAY WHAT THE FORM IS, PRECISELY. ⭐ FOR A NOUN THAT MEANS CASE AND NUMBER. FOR A VERB IT MEANS TENSE AND PERSON AND NUMBER. Being vague here wastes the easy half: "it is genitive" is weaker than "it is genitive singular". ⭐⭐ THEN FIND WHAT REQUIRED IT, AND LOOK IN THIS ORDER, BECAUSE IT GOES FROM MOST TO LEAST OBVIOUS. IS THERE A PREPOSITION IN FRONT OF IT? Then that preposition required the case, and your list prints which case it takes. IS IT ATTACHED TO A VERB THAT GOVERNS A CASE? Then the verb required it, and the list prints that too. IS IT PART OF A CONSTRUCTION? A participle phrase standing outside the sentence, a relative clause, an indirect statement. Then the construction required it. IS IT AGREEING WITH SOMETHING? An adjective or a participle takes its case, number and gender from the noun it belongs to, so the noun required it. ⭐ THEN SAY IT IN ONE SENTENCE: THE FORM, THEN THE WORD OR CONSTRUCTION THAT REQUIRED IT. That sentence is the answer. It does not need to be long. ⚠️ THREE HABITS THAT COST MARKS HERE. ⚠️ THE FIRST IS ANSWERING WITH THE LABEL YOU WERE GIVEN. "It is accusative because it is the object" restates the form instead of explaining it. Point at what required it. ⚠️ THE SECOND IS TRANSLATING INSTEAD OF EXPLAINING. A translation shows you understood the sentence. It does not say why the ending is what it is, and this question is only asking that. ⚠️ AND THE THIRD IS BEING VAGUE ABOUT WHICH WORD. ⭐ "BECAUSE OF THE PREPOSITION" WHEN THERE ARE TWO PREPOSITIONS IN THE SENTENCE IS NOT POINTING AT ANYTHING. NAME IT. One last thing, and it is a relief rather than a warning. This paper tests the indicative mood only, so you will never be asked to explain a subjunctive or an optative. The range of answers is genuinely small.

One sentence, three questions

Take one sentence and ask three separate questions about it, which is exactly what the paper does. ὁ στρατηγὸς τὸν ἄγγελον ἐν τῇ ἀγορᾷ ηὗρεν (the general found the messenger in the market-place). ⭐ QUESTION ONE. τὸν ἄγγελον. WHICH FORM, AND WHY? Accusative singular. Now the second half, and the temptation is to write "because it is the object", which just renames it. Better: the verb has an object, and in Greek a plain object of this kind stands in the accusative. The verb required it. ⚠️ NOTICE THAT THIS ANSWER POINTS AT SOMETHING. THE FIRST ONE POINTED AT NOTHING. ⭐ QUESTION TWO. τῇ ἀγορᾷ. WHICH FORM, AND WHY? Dative singular. And here the answer is almost embarrassingly available: ἐν is sitting in front of it, and your vocabulary list prints that word as ἐν + dat. So: dative singular, required by ἐν, which governs the dative and nothing else. ⭐ ONE CLAUSE, FULL MARKS, AND THE EVIDENCE WAS PRINTED IN THE LIST YOU ALREADY LEARNED. ⚠️ AND NOTICE WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED WITH "BECAUSE IT SHOWS WHERE IT HAPPENED". True, useful for translating, and it does not name what required the ending. ⭐ QUESTION THREE. ηὗρεν. WHICH FORM, AND WHY? Third person singular, aorist. Why aorist rather than imperfect? Because the finding happened once and is complete, not something going on in the background. And why third person singular? Because ὁ στρατηγὸς is the subject, singular, so the verb had to agree with it. ⚠️⚠️ THAT LAST MOVE IS THE ONE STUDENTS FORGET IS AVAILABLE. AGREEMENT IS A REASON. THE SUBJECT REQUIRED THE PERSON AND THE NUMBER OF THE VERB, AND SAYING SO IS A COMPLETE EXPLANATION. Three questions, three answers, and every one of them pointed at something in the sentence rather than restating the label. ⭐ IF YOU CAN POINT, YOU CAN EXPLAIN. IF YOU CANNOT POINT AT ANYTHING, LOOK AGAIN FOR THE CONSTRUCTION, BECAUSE THAT IS WHERE IT IS HIDING.

Order how to explain a form

Put these six moves into the order that turns half an answer into a whole one.

• Name the form precisely: case and number for a noun, tense and person and number for a verb
• Look first for a preposition in front of it, since your vocabulary list prints the case it takes
• If there is no preposition, look for a verb that governs a case
• If neither applies, ask which construction the phrase belongs to
• If it is still unexplained, check whether it is agreeing with another word
• Write one sentence naming the form and the word or construction that required it

Build the explanation sentence

This is the sentence the second half of the question is asking for. Assemble it.

One form, two possible subjects

The form ἔλαβον appears in a passage. On its own it could mean "I took" or "they took". Why does that matter for this question?

• Because the ending alone does not settle the person, so the explanation has to point at the subject of the sentence, which is the only thing that decides it
• Because one of those two meanings must be a mistake in the text
• Because such forms are rare enough that the examiner will avoid them
• Because the tense cannot be identified either

The why-this-form run

Five questions on explaining forms rather than naming them. Three lives.

Complete the grammar facts

The form a noun, adjective or article takes to show its job in the sentence is its _____. The form a verb takes to show when the action happened is its _____. The form a verb takes to show who is doing the action is its _____. When a word requires another word to stand in a particular case, it _____ that case.

Three half-answers to finish

Three student answers on this question. Every one of them is accurate as far as it goes, and every one of them stops early.

• Asked why `τῇ ἀγορᾷ` is dative in `ἐν τῇ ἀγορᾷ` (in the market-place), a student writes: because it shows where the action happened. What would finish the answer?
• Asked why a participle phrase is in the genitive when nothing in the main clause governs it, a student writes that the genitive must show possession. What has gone wrong?
• Asked why a verb is third person singular, a student writes: because that is what the ending shows. How would you improve it?

Explain three forms properly

Take the sentence ὁ στρατηγὸς τὸν ἄγγελον ἐν τῇ ἀγορᾷ ηὗρεν (the general found the messenger in the market-place). Explain the form of τὸν ἄγγελον, of τῇ ἀγορᾷ, and of ηὗρεν. You are not asked to translate anything.

• For each of the three, name the form precisely first: case and number for the nouns, tense and person and number for the verb
• Then say what required that form, pointing at a word or a construction in the sentence
• For `τῇ ἀγορᾷ`, name the preposition and say what case it governs
• For `ηὗρεν`, give a reason for the person and number as well as the tense
• Avoid restating the label: "accusative because it is the object" is the habit to write your way out of
• Keep each explanation to one sentence, since a short answer that points at something beats a long one that does not