Mastronarde, Unit 22, Sentences for Reading, number 2.

Here you can discuss all things Ancient Greek. Use this board to ask questions about grammar, discuss learning strategies, get help with a difficult passage of Greek, and more.
Post Reply
hlawson38
Textkit Zealot
Posts: 1076
Joined: Tue Mar 02, 2010 12:38 am
Location: Tampa, Florida, USA

Mastronarde, Unit 22, Sentences for Reading, number 2.

Post by hlawson38 »

My bafflement is caused by the verb ἐστιν. I believe I've overlooked a point of grammar or usage that would explain things.

2. πῶς ὑμῖν τὰ ἀληθῆ λέξω, ἐπεὶ δεινά ἐστιν ἅ με δεῖ ἀγγεῖλαι;

I want to translate thus:
How shall I tell you the true-facts, when there are terrible things (δεινὰ ἐστιν )that I must report.


But ἐστιν is singular, right? and δεινά . . . ἅ, are both plural, right?

The Mastronarde answer key translates thus:
How shall I tell you the true details, when what I must report is terrible?
Hugh Lawson

User avatar
seneca2008
Textkit Zealot
Posts: 2006
Joined: Wed Sep 09, 2015 1:48 pm
Location: Londinium

Re: Mastronarde, Unit 22, Sentences for Reading, number 2.

Post by seneca2008 »

Check out
neuter plural subject, with singular verb, 39, 48
Note an important peculiarity of concord in Greek: a neuter plural subject regularly takes a third person singular verb. τὰ παιδία δῶρα ταῖς θεαῖς φέρει.  The children bring gifts to the goddesses.
8.  Neuter Plural Subject. As one would expect, a Greek verb agrees with its subject in person and number. (See Unit 4, Prelim. B.) But, as mentioned in Unit 4.10, when the subject is a neuter plural noun or pronoun, the Greek verb is normally third person singular rather than plural, apparently because the neuter plural was originally felt to express a single collective concept.
The index is sometimes a useful place to look.
Persuade tibi hoc sic esse, ut scribo: quaedam tempora eripiuntur nobis, quaedam subducuntur, quaedam effluunt. Turpissima tamen est iactura, quae per neglegentiam fit. Et si volueris attendere, maxima pars vitae elabitur male agentibus, magna nihil agentibus, tota vita aliud agentibus.

donhamiltontx
Textkit Member
Posts: 105
Joined: Tue Jul 28, 2015 5:27 pm

Re: Mastronarde, Unit 22, Sentences for Reading, number 2.

Post by donhamiltontx »

δεινὰ is neuter plural in the sentence, and neuter plurals can take a verb in the singular. I don't have Mastronarde, but the reference in Smyth is 958. See also Smyth 959.

Edit: Oops, seneca beat me to it.

hlawson38
Textkit Zealot
Posts: 1076
Joined: Tue Mar 02, 2010 12:38 am
Location: Tampa, Florida, USA

Re: Mastronarde, Unit 22, Sentences for Reading, number 2.

Post by hlawson38 »

Many thanks to donhamiltonx and Seneca2008. I must have studied neuter plural subjects' taking singular verbs, and later forgotten it. I had no idea where I had gone wrong.
Hugh Lawson

Post Reply