[B-Greek] Beginner Struggling with Translating

Mitchell, John W JWMitchell at midamerican.com
Fri Dec 3 09:38:33 EST 2004


 
I'm working my way though Mounces' BBG.  One group of exercises for this
chapter is translating various sentence fragments.  I'm really
struggling to get my answers to match Mounces.  For instance, this is
one of the fragements I'm supposed to translate (I haven't covered verbs
yet which is why he provides the definition of the first word):
 
GNWRISQH (he/she/it might be made known) NUN TAIS ARCAIS KAI TAIS
EXOUSIAIS.
 
Mounce translates it as:
 
It might be made known now to the rules and the authorities.
 
Before I looked at the answer, I didn't understand what to do with two
words in the dative.  Does the clause TAIS ARCAIS KAI TAIS EXOUSIAIS
represent the indirect object?  If so, how would I have known that ahead
of time?  Also there doesn't seem to be a subject.  It appears the the
subject in contained within the verb, but if so, how would I know to use
'It' and not 'He' or 'She'?
 
Also when a word means multiple things, such as the word EXOUSIAIS which
I learned can mean power or authority, how do I know which English word
matches the sentence thought best?  Is this something that just comes
with experience?  Does this get easier with time?  I've been working
hard to memorize the vocab, noun endings and articles and I thought I
was doing well.  But this has got me thinking I've misunderstood
something.
 
John
 
 



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