[B-Greek] possessive adjectives and pronouns

Clwinbery at aol.com Clwinbery at aol.com
Thu May 27 22:36:55 EDT 2004


In a message dated 5/27/2004 9:21:50 PM Eastern Daylight Time, frances at pconsulting.com.au writes:

> Hi,
> 
> I'm a student of Greek in Armidale, NSW, Australia. I started learning
> NT Greek in February 2000 and this is the third time I've done
> introductory Greek, each of the last two times I've been hoping to be
> able to carry it on further, but things keep preventing it! This time
> I'm actually doing Attic Greek, but with the relevant differences in
> mind, and with the purpose of reading the Greek NT.
> 
> Anyway, the latest assignment is on Pronouns, and one of the questions
> is on the difference of usage between possessive pronouns, and
> possessive adjectives (emos etc). I had to miss the relevant lecture and
> when a friend tried to explain it, I didn't understand. I know that by
> the time Koine Greek came around, possessive relative pronouns had taken
> the most part of the role, but I thought perhaps there was someone
> here who would be able to help me despite this, since the 
> two types of Greek
> are so similar. (btw, we're using the "Reading Greek" books)
> 
> Thanks,
> Frances Hardy

I am not sure what you mean by "possessive pronoun." What we often call possessive pronouns are really the possessive adjectives, EMOS, SOS, hHMETEROS, hUMETEROS, IDIOS, ALLOTRIOS. These are used in the GNT only as adjectives. Pronouns in the GNT show possession only in the genitive case. One bit of info is the form for the neuter nom/acc sing. In pronouns the nu is left off, but for most of the adjectives the ending is -ON. 
For the possessives the neuter nom/acc is EMON, SON, ETC.

Carlton Winbery
Louisiana College



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