Case

Glossary

The Greek language uses a system called Case to indicate the function or relationship of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, articles, and participles to other words in the sentence. Case endings (or suffixes) are added to the end of the noun, pronoun, adjective, article, or participle to indicate its function or relationship to the other words in the sentence. There are five cases in the Greek language; Nominative, Vocative, Genitive, Dative, and Accusative.

Article

Languages such as Greek, Japanese, German, and Russian have a case system. English for the most part does not use a case system except for pronouns. Instead English mostly uses word order to indicate the function of nouns, pronouns, and adjectives within a sentence. In the example below, the first person singular pronoun changes depending on its function in the sentence.

Subject case		I am speaking
Possessive case		It is my ball
Object case		The ball hit me.

Other languages, such as Hebrew, do not use a case system.

The Nominative case is used to indicate the subject of the sentence, but it can also indicate a predicate nominative, and can be used to indicate apposition. It is also used for adjectives and participles modifying the subject of the sentence. See Nominative case for more detail.

The Vocative case is the case of Direct Address. See Vocative Case for more detail.

The Genitive case indicates possession, but can also be used to indicate separation or relation. In limited situations, it can also indicate the subject or the object of the verb in the sentence among other uses. Adjectives and participles modifying an object in the genitive case will also be in the genitive case. Some prepositions take their object in the genitive case. See Genitive case for more details.

The Dative case is used to indicate, location, means, agency, or the indirect object. Adjectives and participles modifying an object in the dative case will also be in the dative case. Some prepositions take their object in the dative case. See Dative Case for more details.

The Accusative case is the case for the Direct Object among other uses. Adjectives and participles modifying an object in the accusative case will also be in the accusative case. Some prepositions take their object in the accusative case. See Accusative case for more details.

Form

The case of a noun, pronoun, adjective, article, or participle is indicated by the case ending (or suffix) attached to the end of the word. These changes follow three basic patterns called “First declension,” “Second declension,” and “Third declension.”

First declension nouns have a feminine gender for the most part and in the nominative singular end in an alpha or an eta. See First Declension . A few masculine nouns end in an -ας or –ης. These words also follow a first declension pattern.

Second declension nouns end in –ος or –ον in the nominative singular. Almost all words ending in –ος in the nominative singular are masculine gender. All words that end in –ον in the nominative singular are neuter gender. See Second Declension .

Third declension nouns have stems that end in a consonant or the vowels (ι, υ, ευ). They are made up of all three genders. See Third Declension .

Adjectives and pronouns agree in case and number with the noun they are modifying (or to which they are referring). Sometimes, the changes may be more significant. [for example the first person singular pronoun ἐγώ in the nominative case changes to μου when it is in the genitive case] See Adjective_paradigm or Pronoun_paradigm .

Order of Words

Because the Greek language has a case system, the order of the words in a sentence can be changed to place an emphasis on a particular word or clause. The normal word order is conjunction – verb – subject – object. When this order is changed there is probably a slight emphasis being made on the words that are moved forward.

Example: Satan tempting Jesus

Matthew 4:3
Εἰ	υἱὸς	εἶ	τοῦ	θεοῦ	εἰπὲ	ἵνα	οἱ	λίθοι	οὗτοι	ἄρτοι	γένωνται.
Ei	huios	ei	tou	theou	eipe	hina	hoi	lithoi	houtoi	artoi	genōntai.
If	son	you are	of	God	order	that	the	stones	these	bread	they become.

If you are the son of God, order that these stones become bread.

Note: In this sentence the phrase “if you are the son of god” has been moved to the first position in the sentence. The movement of the phrase to the front of the sentence places a slight emphasis or stress on the condition.