English Grammar

Jon R. Venema Grammata at compuserve.com
Tue Dec 29 11:18:28 EST 1998


Thikka at aol.com wrote:
> 
>       Dear B-Greekers,
>        I am attempting to learn Biblical Greek and finding that my
knowledge
> of English grammar isn't entirely up to the task. Most of the authors who
> write books about  NT Greek do a fabulous job of describing grammatical
> terminology, but I would like to study English grammar more thoroughly so
that
> I won't have to wait until I learn Greek
> before truely comprehending English grammar. Yet, many of the authors who
> write tomes about English grammar are either too complicated-like the
work by
> Huddleston which I have looked at-or so easy that I half expect to hear
the
> voice of Mr. Rogers intoning, " Can you say, " noun" ? Moreover, some
authors
> will throw around terms like "kernal clause" and "finite clause" while
other
> authors never seem to mention these two concepts but, instead, use
terminology
> which is different in its own odd way. In brief, is there a grammar which
is
> consistent enough in its description of terms and concepts that, as I
begin my
> study of Greek, it will help rather than hinder me in my pursuit of
> proficiency in understanding Greek and English.

John,

Although this suggestion does not offer an English grammar, may I suggest
you 
locate a copy of  Nunn, H. P. V.  A Short Syntax of New Testament Greek. 
5th ed.  
Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 1938, paperback 1975, as a
compliment
to your English texts.

The first 24 pages are devoted to English grammar with a glossary.  It is a
text which you 
could later grow into and would be well worth the purchase price beyond the
plain 
explanation of English grammar.  

Jon R. Venema
Western Seminary



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