Lesson 2 | The Second Pass: Indent
Genitive Phrases
Genitive phrase
A phrase that begins with the word “of.”
Function: A genitive phrase modifies a noun.
In the example above, the genitive phrase "of God" modifies the noun "Lamb," and the genitive phrase "of the world" modifies the noun "sin."
There are several common ways a genitive can modify a noun. It can show the following relationships and more: possessive, attributive, apposition, subjective, and objective. (Don’t worry about trying to remember those relationships; you won’t have to know them until Lesson 5.)
Indenting: Genitive phrases should always be indented to the right of their head noun.
Notice that this is different than every other type of phrase: every other phrase type should be indented to the right of the beginning of the anchor phrase.
Note to Greek Students
If you’re familiar with Greek, you’re aware that sometimes a Greek genitive phrase is best translated into English without the word “of.” On the other hand, there are times when some other types of phrases in Greek (i.e. not genitive phrases) get translated into English with the word “of.” Both cases can be seen in John 1:30.
However, because this course is both for those who know Greek and those who don’t, we’re simply going to follow the English in our identification of genitive phrases.
Quizlet
Before you move on to a video demonstration of the Second Pass, here’s a short “quizlet” to ensure you’ve mastered the terminology of the Second Pass.