Greek grammar
The accusative
αἰτιατικὴ πτῶσις
The accusative marks the direct object, the person or thing the action is done to: Ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, “tell me of the man”.
What it does
- The direct object: τὴν νίκην ἀπονεῖμαι, “to award the victory”.
- Motion towards, after εἰς, πρός and ἐπί: εἰς τὴν οἰκίαν, “into the house”. After πρός it can also mean with, in the presence of: πρὸς τὸν θεόν, “with God”.
- How long: τὸν μὲν ἄλλον χρόνον, “for the rest of the time”.
- The subject of an infinitive in reported speech.
Endings
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | τόν | τήν | τό |
| Plural | τούς | τάς | τά |
Nouns: -ον, -ους (2nd declension), -ην or -αν, -ας (1st), -α or -ν, -ας (3rd). A neuter’s accusative is the same as its nominative.
In the texts
Real lines from the graded passages, as the reader shows them: the accusative stands out in its colour, and an arc joins the word to what it goes with.
Ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, μοῦσα, πολύτροπον, ὃς μάλα πολλὰ πλάγχθη, ἐπεὶ Τροίης ἱερὸν πτολίεθρον ἔπερσεν·
Tell me, O Muse, of the much-traveled man, who wandered very much, after he sacked the sacred citadel of Troy.
Ἄνδρα, the man, is the object of ἔννεπε, and the first word of the Odyssey.
ἔδοξε δὲ αὐτοῖς ἐκείνῳ τὴν νίκην ἀπονεῖμαι, ὃς ἂν αὐτῶν ἄνθρωπον ὁδοιπόρον ἐκδύσῃ.
It seemed good to them to assign the victory to him, whichever of them should strip a traveling man.
Τὴν νίκην, the victory, is the object of the infinitive ἀπονεῖμαι.
Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Πρός with the accusative: πρὸς τὸν θεόν, with God.
Words read in the accusative
Words from the library’s analysed texts, with the forms they took in the accusative.