[B-Greek] "translating" the Middle Voice

frjsilver at optonline.net frjsilver at optonline.net
Sat Apr 28 19:25:30 EDT 2007


Dear Friends --

To a certain extent, almost all truly intransitive verbs have the force of Middle Voice forms, which don't exist for all Greek verbs.  And there is a maddening tendency of Middle forms to overlap Passive forms in various times, places and styles.  Let your context be your guide!

Generally -- *very* generally -- it can be said that Greek Middle Voice corresponds to 'reflexive' syntax in English and many other languages, and to actions which agents perform on/for themselves.

So:  
ACTIVE:   "I bathed the baby.'
MIDDLE:   'I bathed before bedtime.'
PASSIVE:   'The baby was bathed before bedtime.'


ACTIVE:   "I examined the wound I received.'
MIDDLE:   'I examined myself for wounds.'
PASSIVE:   'My wounds were examined.'

Of course, this isn't a complete or definitive list of the possibilities, but I hope it helps a little.

CRISTOS ANESTH!

Father James Silver

Monk James
Orthodox Church in America


----- Original Message -----
From: Delbert Flora 
Date: Saturday, April 28, 2007 6:03 pm
Subject: [B-Greek] "translating" the Middle Voice
To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org

> Mounce has us "translate" the voices for Active and Passive as 
> follows:
> Active: I loose
> Passive: I was loosed
> 
> What would be a good way of "translating" the Middle for 
> beginners? And what 
> would be added to this beginner's "translation" in a more 
> advanced class? 
> (He suggests something that denotes "self-interest" with many 
> verbs, but not 
> all. I guess I am looking for the proper way to learn from the 
> very 
> beginning so I can develop good habits.)
> 
> Kindly,
> Delbert Flora
> 
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