The Cases and What They Do

"The dog bites the man" and "The man bites the dog" use the same words. Only the order tells you who is in trouble. English depends on word order to show who does what. Greek depends on endings. Change the ending and you change the role. Keep the endings and you can put the words in almost any order you like, and the meaning stays the same.

Those endings are called cases. Greek has five (Smyth, section 201). Lesson 5 gave you the tables. This lesson explains what each case does, so the tables turn into meaning.

English still has a few cases

English pronouns keep a trace of the old system. "He sees her." "She sees him." The words switch shape depending on their job: he for the subject, him for the object. And "his" means "of him." Greek does this with every noun, adjective and pronoun.

The five cases one by one

Nominative: the subject

The nominative names the subject, the one who does the action or is described. It is also the case of a noun that renames the subject after "is": "Socrates is a philosopher," where both nouns are nominative. It is the dictionary form.

• ὁ ἵππος τρέχει. [ho HIP-pos TRE-khē] The horse runs.
• Σωκράτης φιλόσοφος. [sō-KRA-tēs phi-LO-so-phos] Socrates (is) a philosopher. Both nominative. Greek often leaves out "is."

Genitive: "of," and "from"

The genitive most often limits another noun, telling you whose it is or what kind it is (Smyth, section 1289). English uses "of" or an apostrophe s. The Greek genitive also took over the jobs of an older case, the ablative, which meant "from" (Smyth, sections 203 and 1279). So the genitive is used for separation and origin too, often with a preposition.

• ἡ οἰκία τοῦ φίλου. [hē oi-KI-ā TOO PHI-loo] The house of the friend, the friend's house.
• τὸ ὕδωρ τῆς θαλάττης. [to HÜ-dōr TĒS tha-LAT-tēs] The water of the sea.
• ἀπὸ τῆς ἀγορᾶς. [a-po TĒS a-go-RĀS] From the marketplace. (ἀπό takes the genitive; lesson 11.)
• Time within which: ἡμέρας [hē-ME-rās] "by day, during the day."

Dative: "to, for, with, by, in, at"

The dative does the work of three older cases (Smyth, section 1450). It is the dative proper, "to" or "for" a person, which is why it gets its name from the verb "to give." It is also the old instrumental, "with" or "by means of," and the old locative, "in" or "at" a place or time.

• Indirect object: δίδωμι τὸ δῶρον τῷ φίλῳ. [DI-dō-mi to DŌ-ron TŌI PHI-lōi] I give the gift to the friend.
• Interest: for someone's benefit. καλὸν τῷ φίλῳ. Good for the friend.
• Means: λίθοις [LI-thois] with stones. Smyth's own example (section 203).
• Time when: τῇ ἡμέρᾳ [TĒI hē-ME-rāi] on the (that) day.
• Possession with "is": ὄνομά μοι Δάνα. To me (is) the name Dana. This is the "dative of the possessor" from lesson 4 (Smyth, section 1476).

The dative is the case with the iota subscript in the singular: χώρᾳ, τιμῇ, θαλάττῃ, λόγῳ, δώρῳ. That small mark is often your only clue, which is why lesson 1 told you never to drop it.

Accusative: the object, and "to" a place

The accusative names the direct object, the thing most directly affected by the verb. With prepositions of motion, it shows the place you go to. It also measures extent of time or space: how long, how far.

• ὁ ἄνθρωπος ὁρᾷ τὸν ἵππον. [ho AN-thrō-pos ho-RĀI ton HIP-pon] The man sees the horse.
• εἰς τὴν ἀγοράν. [ēs tēn a-go-RĀN] Into the marketplace.
• πέντε ἡμέρας [PEN-te hē-ME-rās] for five days (how long).

Vocative: calling someone

The vocative is the case of direct address. It stands outside the grammar of the sentence, often with ὦ in front (Smyth, section 1283). In the plural it is always the same as the nominative (Smyth, section 202). In the singular it is often the same as well. The big exception is the second declension masculine, which has -ε.

• χαῖρε, ὦ φίλε. Hello, friend.
• ὦ θάλαττα. O sea.
• χαίρετε, ὦ φίλοι. Hello, friends.

Word order: free, but not random

Because endings mark the roles, all of these mean "The man sees the horse":

• ὁ ἄνθρωπος ὁρᾷ τὸν ἵππον.
• τὸν ἵππον ὁρᾷ ὁ ἄνθρωπος.
• ὁρᾷ ὁ ἄνθρωπος τὸν ἵππον.
• τὸν ἵππον ὁ ἄνθρωπος ὁρᾷ.

The difference is emphasis. Greek tends to put the most important or newest information first. τὸν ἵππον ὁρᾷ ὁ ἄνθρωπος stresses the horse: "it's the horse the man sees." English does this with tone of voice or by rearranging into "it's... that." A few small words do have fixed places. δέ (and, but) and γάρ (for) never come first in their clause. But nouns and verbs move freely.

The full tables, side by side

Here is every first and second declension noun type from lesson 5 in one table. The article (lesson 7 covers it in full) is shown with each case, because it is often the fastest way to tell the case of an ambiguous form.

Patterns that make the table easier

• Genitive plural always ends in -ων, in every declension of Greek. In the first declension it always has the circumflex: -ῶν (Smyth, section 208).
• Dative singular always has an iota: written underneath (ᾳ, ῃ, ῳ). Dative plural ends in -αις (first) or -οις (second).
• Accusative singular of masculine and feminine nouns ends in -ν. Accusative plural ends in -ς: -ας or -ους.
• Neuters have one form for nominative, accusative and vocative. The plural of those three ends in short -α.
• Vocative plural is always the same as the nominative plural.
• Accent on the genitive and dative of nouns accented on the last syllable is a circumflex: τιμῆς, τιμῇ, τιμῶν, τιμαῖς (Smyth, section 207). The accusative plural τιμάς keeps the acute.

Forms that look alike

Several endings do double duty. The article and the sentence sort them out.

That note about neuter plurals is a famous oddity. Greek treats a neuter plural subject as a collective, so its verb is singular: τὰ δῶρα καλά ἐστι, "the gifts are beautiful," uses ἐστι, the singular "is" (Smyth, section 958). You will meet it constantly.

A word about the dual

For completeness: the dual (for two of something) has only two forms in each declension, one for nominative, accusative and vocative and one for genitive and dative (Smyth, section 202). First declension: χώρα, χώραιν. Second: λόγω, λόγοιν; δώρω, δώροιν. Smyth's example is τὼ ὀφθαλμώ, "the two eyes." It is rare in prose, so you need only recognize it when a commentary points it out.

Vocabulary for this lesson

The verbs are given in the "he, she, it" form only, so you can make sentences now. Lesson 8 teaches full verb tables. The ν in brackets is the "movable ν," added before a vowel or at the end of a sentence (Smyth, section 134).