Hellenistic Greek © 2009
Lesson 16: More Third Declension Nouns and the Verb εἰμί

Grammatical Discussion

Review of Third Declension Nouns

In the previous lesson you learned to recognize third declension nouns with stems ending in a consonant. The third delension nouns present in this lesson are a little more difficult to recognize. Their stems end with a vowel, and this vowel often contracts with the case ending. If you have learned the basic case endings well, though, and remember to look for contractions, you will master these nouns quickly.

Take a moment to review the basic third declension case endings now. Notice that masculine and feminine third declension nouns use the same set of endings. Neuter nouns use a slightly different set. The basic endings for third declension nouns are as follows. A long dash (—) indicates that no case ending is used.

Vowel Stems and Contraction

If a noun stem ends in ε or ο, this stem-final vowel will often contract with the vowel of the third declension case ending causing spelling changes that you must recognize in order to read these nouns correctly.

Remember from the previous lesson that the way to find the stem of a third declension noun is to remove the ending for the genitive singular form. For example, the stem of πούς (foot) is not πού, but ποδ- (the genitive singular ποδός minus its case ending).

Some third declension nouns, though, have stems that end with ε, and this ε contracts with the genitive singular case ending to form -ους instead of -ος. To find the stem of such words, you must know this basic contraction pattern: ε or ο contract with ο to yield ου.

Formation of Third Declension Vowel Stem Nouns

The lists below include only third declension nouns whose stems end with a vowel. Because these third declension nouns have stems that end with a vowel, the α of the nominative and accusative plural of a few neuter nouns will lengthen to η.

Observe the forms of the following nouns and note especially the genitive singular forms. Since ἔτος is neuter, its accusative forms are identical to its nominative forms.

Notice that all three of the words with vocative singular forms simply remove the –ς ending of the nominative singular to form the vocative singular.

Exercise One: Singular and Plural Third-Declension Nouns

Choose the correct plural form for each singular noun, and the correct singular form for each plural noun.

Exercise Two: Case Forms

Identify the case of third declension nouns.

Introduction to the Verb εἰμί

The verb εἰμί (“I am”) occurs 2460 times in the New Testament alone. It is well worth your time to learn its forms well.

Most Greek verbs have several different tenses, like the imperfect and aorist that you have already studied as well as the present, future, perfect, and pluperfect to be studied later. But εἰμί only has two tenses, one augmented and one unaugmented.

Formation of the Verb εἰμί

The forms of the present indicative of εἰμί were introduced as separate words in earlier vocabulary lists. Here the complete paradigms for both the present and imperfect indicative of this verb are presented. Since εἰμί occurs 2460 times in the New Testament and many more thousands of times in other Hellenistic Greek literature, you should learn its forms well.

Present (Unaugmented) Active Indicative

The present active infinitive of εἰμί is εἶναι. You will usually translate this form as "to be."

Imperfect (Augmented) Active Indicative

Exercises Three and Four: Forms of the Verb εἰμί

Choose the best translation for each unaugmented from of the verb εἰμί.

Choose the best translation for each augmented form of εἰμί