How does one express, "The closer the better" in Greek?

How can I learn to express my ideas in clear and intelligible Greek?
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Stephen Hughes
Posts: 3323
Joined: February 26th, 2013, 7:12 am

How does one express, "The closer the better" in Greek?

Post by Stephen Hughes »

I realise this is not really a beginners' question, but it is a writing Greek question.

After the style of Lysias 24.20, an absolute statement "The closest shops to the day market have the most customers, while the furthest have the least", would be πλεῖστοι μὲν προσφοιτῶσιν πρὸς τοὺς ἐγγυτάτω τῆς ἀγορᾶς κατεσκευασμένους, ἐλάχιστοι δὲ πρὸς τοὺς πλεῖστον ἀπέχοντας αὐτῆς.

How would one express the phrase, "The closer a shop is to the day market, the more customers they are likely to have, while the further it is the less it will have."?

The only things that spring to mind are that it might be expressed with the dative (closest to the ) of a comparative adjective, or perhaps like Modern Greek, it be a; πόσον (or ὃσον) <comparative> τόσον <comparative> construction "By how much <>-er by so much <>-er"?
Γελᾷ δ' ὁ μωρός, κἄν τι μὴ γέλοιον ᾖ
(Menander, Γνῶμαι μονόστιχοι 108)
Mark Lightman
Posts: 300
Joined: May 6th, 2011, 6:30 pm

Re: How does one express, "The closer the better" in Greek?

Post by Mark Lightman »

Stephen Hughes wrote:How does one express, "The closer the better" in Greek?
οἱ μὲν φίλοι ἐγγύς, οἰ δ' ἐχθροὶ ἐγγυτέρω.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfHJDLoGInM
Stephen Hughes
Posts: 3323
Joined: February 26th, 2013, 7:12 am

Re: How does one express, "The closer the better" in Greek?

Post by Stephen Hughes »

By doing a net search in English, I found this adverbial example.
Mark 7:36 wrote:καὶ διεστείλατο αὐτοῖς ἵνα μηδενὶ εἴπωσιν ὅσον δὲ αὐτὸς αὐτοῖς διεστέλλετο μᾶλλον περισσότερον ἐκήρυσσον
"the more" ... "the more"
It is not surprising that this is expressed with imperfects (in contrast to the surrounding verbs, which are aorist).

I'm not convinced that this is a universal pattern that can be used in more than a specific type of situation. My guess is that there a variety of patterns used in a number of defined (but as yet unknown to me) circumstances.
Γελᾷ δ' ὁ μωρός, κἄν τι μὴ γέλοιον ᾖ
(Menander, Γνῶμαι μονόστιχοι 108)
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