Lesson 3 | The Second Noun Pattern, Prepositions, and Connectors
Translating the Greek Text
We are now at the point in this course where we can establish a process for translating the text. Our process for translating includes five steps:
A Five-Step Process for Translating
1. Divide the text into clauses
- Pay attention to connectors
- Use the punctuation provided by the NA28
- Each clause should have one main verb
2. Identify the main verb in the clause
- Until you learn verbs, I will do this for you by coloring the main verb red.
3. Find the verb’s subject
- Remember, a noun’s case–not word order– tells us its role in the sentence.
- The verb’s subject will be in the nominative case.
- Often, Greek verbs do not have an explicit subject. When this happens, I will point this out.
4. Find the verb’s direct object or predicate nominative
- Remember, a noun’s case–not word order– tells us its role in the sentence.
- Action verbs (like ἔχω” “I have” or ἀγαπάω “I love”)
- Take a direct object
- The direct object will be in the accusative case. (A few verbs take their objects in other cases, but this is not common.)
- Not all verbs take a direct object (like ερχομαι “I come/go”).
c. Being verbs (like είμί “to be” or γίνομαι “to be or become”)
- Take a predicate nominative
- The predicate nominative will also be in the nominative case.
- We will learn how to distinguish between the subject nominative and predicate nominative in a future lesson.
5. Identify and diagram the remaining parts
- A genitive noun should go with the noun it describes (its head noun).
b. Keep prepositional phrases together.
- Remember, a prepositional phrase consists of the preposition and its object. Make sure you keep them together.
- Most prepositional phrases work as adverbs (they describe the verb’s action).
c. We will talk about what to do with other parts (like the article and adjectives) later.
This might feel overwhelming, but we will start with simple sentences and diagrams. Diagramming will really help you as you learn Greek because it forces you to identify and parse each part of a Greek clause. In the future, diagramming will also help you establish the structure of long and complex sentences.
Summary of the Five-Step Translation Process
- Clauses: Divide the text into clauses
- Main Verb: Identify the main verb in the clause
- Subject: Identify the verb’s subject
- Object: Identify the verb’s object or predicate nominative
- Extras: Identify and diagram the remaining parts
- A genitive noun should go with its head noun
- Keep prepositional phrases together
Diagramming Cheat SheetpdfThis cheat sheet demonstrates how to diagram each part of speech. Until you learn diagramming, we suggest that you print a copy and keep it wherever you study for this course.
In the video below, I review and demonstrate our five-step translation process. If you did not print off the Diagramming Components cheat sheet from earlier in this lesson, it is strongly recommended that you do so now.
Using the Diagramming Module
You likely have already picked up quite a bit of how Biblearc's Diagramming modules works by watching the demonstrations, but let’s make sure. Below is a short video unpacking this module’s functionality.