Notes On Koine Greek: Part 8

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1. Negatives: In Greek, there are quite a few words or word combinations that act
as negatives: Here is a look at some Greek negatives:
ou ouj ouci oudeij mh mhti mhdeij ouj mha|
2. Note that the Greek adverb “ou” is used with the indicative mood while the
particle “mh” is used with the other moods. “ou” has a “final” sense to it
(indicative) while “mh” has a sense to it that is left open (e.g. subjunctive). If “ou”
is used in a question sense in the indicative mood, the expected answer is “yes”.
If “mh” or “mhti” are used in the indicative in a question, the expected answer is
“no”. The “double negative” “ouj mha” is a VERY final and assured sense to it!
a. An adverb is: a word that modifies verbs, adjectives, etc. In English, these
are often words that end in “ly”.
b. A particle is: often prepositional in nature. Yet, it is sometimes attached
to a verb without being prepositional and can add meaning to the verb.
3. Negatives precede the words to which they refer!

4. How To Parse: Parsing is pretty much a fancy term for “breaking down” or
“putting together” the data that a word contains. For example, if we were to parse
the verb luomen, we would be attempting to gather all the information about it that
we were able. We could say then, that it is Present tense, Active Voice, Indicative
mood, 1st Person, Plural Number whose origin is luw.
5. Parsing Table: When parsing in Greek, it is easiest to use a parsing table like
the one that follows:
Inflected Verbs Lexical Verbal Inflected
Word Tense Voice Mood Per. No. Form Root Meaning

6. Parsing Key:
Tense Voice Mood Person Number
P = Present Ac = Active Ind = Indicative 1 S = Sing.
I = Imperfect M = Middle S = Subjunctive 2 Pl = Plur.
F = Future / 2F = 2Future P = Passive O = Optative 3
A = Aorist / 2A = 2Aorist D = Deponent Im = Imperative
Pf = Perfect / 2Pf = 2Perfect MD = Mid. Deponent In = Infinitive
Pp = Pluperfect / 2PL = 2Pluperfect PD = Passive Deponent Pt = Participle
IA – Impersonal Active

Using luomen, we would fill the parsing table out as follows:

Inflected Verbs Lexical Verbal Inflected

Word Tense Voice Mood Per. No. Form Root Meaning
luomen P A Ind 1 Pl luw lu To loose, untie