Koine Greek: Pronouns

Pronouns in Koine Greek
RELATED TOPICS	Demonstratives
SERMONS, ESSAYS AND OPINIONS
CONTENTS

Lesson

A pronoun is a word that is a substitute for a noun (for example: αυτος ["he"] may replace the noun `ο ανθρωπος ["the man"]).

The replaced phrase is known as the antecedent of the pronoun.

A pronoun used for the item questioned in a question is called an interrogative pronoun, such as "who".

Interrogative and Indefinitive Pronouns

The words why and which and what and who when used as questions, are interrogative pronouns.

The words something and someone are indefinite pronouns.

Forms

If the ι has an accent on it, then the word is an interrogative pronoun. For example τίς means who or what. If the ι does not have an accent on it, then the word is an indefinite pronoun. For example τις means someone or something.

The masculine and feminine forms of the indefinite and interrogative pronoun are the same, and they decline as follows:

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	τις	τινες
Genitive	τινος	τινων
Dative	τινι	τισιν
Accusative	τινα	τινας

Neuter forms of the indefinite and interrogative pronoun decline as follwows:

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	τι	τινα
Genitive	τινος	τινων
Dative	τινι	τισιν
Accusative	τι	τινα

Relative pronouns

The words who and that and which when linking an antecedent to a new clause, are called relative pronouns.

The form of relative pronouns is closely linked to the endings of second declension masculine and neuter nouns, and first declension feminine nouns. They can be noted easily because they all have a rough breathing mark, and an accent.

The relative pronoun takes the same gender and number as its antecedent.

The case of the relative pronoun is governed by the function that the relative pronoun takes.

Links

• Wikipedia - Pronoun

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