These CONJUNCTIONS are common and vital in Greek, even more so than in

English. Few sentences are without them, and they thus show the links in the
writers or speakers thought. This is similar to the behaviour of words
THEREFORE, HOWEVER and NEVERTHELESS in many English contexts.
There is, however, a difference from English usage. In Greek most of these words,
(unlike
) cannot come first in the sentence.
OEM

For example, one of the two main Greek words for AND ( ) can never come first.
XI

RHVIN KYREMOIN XI

MEN AND WOMEN or MEN, WOMEN TOO

For practice, write down the Greek for MEN AND WOMEN using the two
different forms you have now learned.
.................................................................
The most frequent conjunctions are:
Write them and say them aloud.
XI

(and)

........................................................................

KEV

(for)

........................................................................

SR

(therefore)

........................................................................

QIRXSM

HI

(nevertheless, however)

(but, and)

........................................................................
........................................................................

You can follow up this material in Reading Greek: Grammar, Vocabulary and
Exercises (GVE), which will be sent to you as part of your course material.
Alphabet, p.1.
Breathings, p.2.
Verb changes, pp.31014, 31622.
Noun, pronoun and adjective changes, pp.14ff., 3226.
Prepositions, p.16.
Language history, pp.30810.
Particles, pp.292 ff (for conjunctions).

Part 3

Understanding sentences

More about sentences and their meaning

A sentence consists of a number of words which, to make sense, must contain a
verb (a doing word). This will usually have a word telling us who is doing the
action:
The players ran out onto the pitch. The referee blew his whistle and the
centre-forward kicked off.
Analysing this short extract, we find three separate sentences all determined by
the different actions (ran, blew and kicked the three verbs). We also have
three separate doers of the action; the players, the referee and the centreforward. These three nouns are described as being the subjects of their verbs.
Here are three more short sentences containing subjects and verbs for you to
identify subject and verb:

13