Notes · Greek (Modern)UK · A-Levels

Grammar and translation: Appendix 2, Paper 1 Section A and Paper 2 Section A

This topic carries the two translation tasks of the qualification and the grammar that both of them rest on. Paper 1 Section A is an unseen passage translated from Greek into English, 20 marks, with a recommended 20 minutes; Paper 2 Section A is an unseen passage translated from English into Greek, 20 marks, with a recommended 30 minutes. Both are marked by the same points-based logic, one mark for each correct individual section of language, and together they carry 40 of the qualification's marks. Behind them sits Appendix 2, the prescribed grammar list, which has an unusual shape worth knowing about: it lists the conventions governing the position of the stress, the writing system, and then morphology in ten parts — article, noun, adjective, pronouns, verb, gerund and participles, adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions, numerals — and it contains no syntax section at all. Syntax is instead examined through the AO3 mark grids, whose own definition of complex language names the pluperfect and future perfect, the passive, the subjunctive and the use of subordination. The house script policy is stated here and applies everywhere in this subject: Modern Greek is written monotonically, with one accent and no breathings, and the polytonic conventions of the A-Level in Classical Greek are a different qualification's business.

5 sections~37 min reading time4 competenciesLevel Standard 1 · Advanced 4

T·0777 / 12

Exam profile

AO2 · Understand written Greek closely enough to render it into accurate English across the whole tense and case systemAO3 · Manipulate Greek accurately in writing, controlling case, gender, aspect, voice, mood, clitic placement and the position of the stressAO3 · Deploy the structures the mark grids define as complex language: the pluperfect and future perfect, the passive, the subjunctive and subordinationAO4 · Recognise register and cultural reference in a source text well enough to render it without over-translating or flattening it

Operators:μεταφράζωαποδίδωκλίνωαναλύωελέγχωδιορθώνωεντοπίζωδικαιολογώ

basic level

At first-year standard the expectation is that the four cases, the two conjugations and the basic tense system are secure, and that a translation into Greek does not produce a case mismatch.

higher level

The full A-Level expects the whole ten-tense indicative in both voices, the simple and continuous subjunctive and imperative, the gerund and the -μένος participle, declined numerals, and clitic placement handled without hesitation.

Depth

Text

Contents · 5 sections

Grammar and translation: Appendix 2, Paper 1 Section A and Paper 2 Section A

The writing system, the stress, and the monotonic policy#

StandardPearson Edexcel 9GK0 Appendix 2, items 1 and 2 — conventions regarding the position of the stress; the writing system, rules of spelling, punctuationDfE GCE AS and A level subject content for modern foreign languages

The specification's grammar list opens with the position of the stress, before the article, before the noun, before anything else, and that ordering is a message. In Greek the accent is not decoration but grammar: it distinguishes words, it moves when a word is inflected, and it is checked in the accuracy grids like any other ending. The rules can be stated compactly. Every word of two syllables or more carries exactly one accent, the τόνος, written over the vowel of the stressed syllable. That syllable is always one of the last three: a word accented on the last is οξύτονη, on the second-last παροξύτονη, on the third-last προπαροξύτονη. Monosyllables are not accented, with a short list of exceptions that exist precisely to distinguish homographs.

The house policy, settled before the first Greek word of this subject was written and applying to everything in it, is monotonic. Modern Greek has been written with one accent and no breathings since the monotonic system was adopted for state and educational use in 1982, and that is what an examiner expects to read and what every current Greek publication uses. The polytonic system — with its acute, grave and circumflex, its rough and smooth breathings and its iota subscript — belongs to the A-Level in Classical Greek, which is a different qualification for a different state of the language. Polytonic appears in this subject only where it is genuinely relevant: in the history of the language question, and when a student researching a topic opens an older printed book, a church text or a pre-1982 edition, including editions of Cavafy.

The accented monosyllables are a small closed list and every one of them is examinable, because getting one wrong changes the sentence rather than blemishing it. Πού with an accent is where, including in indirect questions, while που without one is the relative that or which. Πώς is how; πως is that. Ή is or; η is the feminine article. Μία and μια, δύο and δυο differ in emphasis and syllable count rather than in meaning. Beyond the monosyllables, ό,τι with a comma is whatever, while ότι without one is the conjunction that; the comma is part of the spelling and omitting it is a spelling error. A second accent appears on a proparoxytone word when a weak pronoun follows it — ο δάσκαλός μου, ζήτησέ της — because Greek does not tolerate a stress further back than the third syllable from the end of the whole group.

Punctuation is item two of the grammar list and Greek differs from English in three visible ways. The question mark is written as a semicolon, so Τι κάνεις; is a question and not a clause break. The άνω τελεία or ano teleia, a raised dot ·, does the work of an English colon or a strong semicolon and is common in careful prose; recognising it as a pivot is a real reading skill, because writers use it to set a correction against a statement. Quotation marks are the angled «…», with the em dash used for dialogue in fiction. The apostrophe marks elision, which is frequent and idiomatic: σ' αυτό, απ' το σπίτι, μ' αρέσει. None of this is optional in a translation into Greek, and all of it is quick to learn.

Worked example

Reading for the accent: four sentences that change meaning without it

Each pair below differs only in an accent or a comma. Say what each sentence means, and identify what a candidate who ignored the mark would produce. 1a Πού πήγες; 1b Το σπίτι που πήγες. 2a Δεν ξέρω πώς έγινε. 2b Είπε πως έγινε. 3a Θα έρθει ή θα μείνει; 3b Η αδελφή του. 4a Θα κάνω ό,τι μπορώ. 4b Ξέρω ότι μπορώ.

Pair 1 — the interrogative against the relative
Πού πήγες; means where did you go, and the accent is what makes πού interrogative. Το σπίτι που πήγες means the house you went to, with the unaccented relative που. The same three letters do two different grammatical jobs. A candidate translating a Section A passage who reads an accented πού as a relative will produce a subordinate clause where the Greek had an embedded question, and the sentence will not parse; a candidate writing Section B answers who omits the accent has written a different sentence from the one they intended.
Pair 2 — the same distinction for manner
Δεν ξέρω πώς έγινε, I do not know how it happened, with accented πώς as the interrogative of manner in an indirect question. Είπε πως έγινε, he said that it happened, with unaccented πως as a conjunction interchangeable with ότι. The pair is worth drilling because the two words are both extremely frequent and because varying between πως and ότι is one of the cheapest ways to add variety to a Greek answer, which the AO3 range grid rewards.
Pair 3 — the disjunction against the article
Θα έρθει ή θα μείνει; means will he come or will he stay, with accented ή as or. Η αδελφή του means his sister, with unaccented η as the feminine nominative article. This is the one accented monosyllable that survives even in all-capital setting in careful typography, precisely because dropping it would be ambiguous. In an examination it is a straightforward one-mark difference between a coherent sentence and an incoherent one.
Pair 4 — the comma that is a spelling
Θα κάνω ό,τι μπορώ, I will do whatever I can, with ό,τι as the relative pronoun whatever. Ξέρω ότι μπορώ, I know that I can, with ότι as the conjunction. The comma inside ό,τι is not punctuation; it is part of how the word is spelled, and it exists solely to keep the two apart. Writing ότι for ό,τι produces I will do that I can, which is not Greek, and a marker applying a points-based scheme will treat it as an error of language rather than of typing.

Result: 1a Where did you go? 1b The house you went to. 2a I do not know how it happened. 2b He said that it happened. 3a Will he come or will he stay? 3b His sister. 4a I will do whatever I can. 4b I know that I can. In every pair the difference is a single mark on the page, and in every pair it is a difference of grammar.

Typical mistakes

Importing polytonic spellings from a classical course. They are wrong for this qualification.
Writing που for πού in an indirect question, which turns a question into a relative clause.
Omitting the comma in ό,τι, which is a spelling error and not a typographical nicety.
Forgetting the second accent when a weak pronoun attaches to a proparoxytone word: ο δάσκαλός μου, not ο δάσκαλος μου.

Active revision

Take any 150 words of Greek you have written and check it three times, each time for one thing only: first, that every word of two or more syllables has exactly one accent and it is on one of the last three syllables; second, that every πού, πώς, ή and ό,τι is right; third, that every proparoxytone followed by a weak pronoun has its second accent. Doing three narrow passes finds more than one wide one.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Greek (9GK0) specification (Pearson Edexcel)

The nominal system: article, noun, adjective and the four cases#

AdvancedPearson Edexcel 9GK0 Appendix 2, item 3 (i)–(iii) — the article; the noun: gender, number and case; the adjective: gender, number and caseDfE GCE AS and A level subject content for modern foreign languages

Masculine and feminine nouns: the core paradigms

Fig. 1Five patterns cover the great majority of masculine and feminine nouns a candidate will meet or need. Read the article as part of the form, because it is what carries the case when the ending does not. Three things repay attention: the vocative singular of the -ος masculines, which changes to -ε; the genitive plural, where the accent frequently moves to the ending, giving των ωρών and των νικών; and the accusative singular feminine, where την keeps its final nu before a vowel and loses it before most consonants, so την ώρα but τη νίκη.

Modern Greek has three genders, two numbers and four cases — ονομαστική, γενική, αιτιατική and κλητική — and every article, adjective, participle and pronoun agrees with its noun in all three of gender, number and case. The definite article is the single most useful paradigm in the language because it shows the case of the phrase even when the noun's own ending does not: ο, του, τον for masculine singular; η, της, την for feminine; το, του, το for neuter; οι, των, τους and οι, των, τις and τα, των, τα in the plural. Learn the article first and the nouns hang off it. The specification's Appendix 2 enumerates the noun classes at length, distinguishing ισοσύλλαβα, parisyllabic nouns that keep the same number of syllables through the singular, from ανισοσύλλαβα, imparisyllabic ones that gain one in the plural.

Three points of the article's behaviour cause more errors than anything else in the nominal system. First, the final -ν. The feminine accusative την and the forms στην, δεν and μην keep their -ν before a vowel and before κ, π, τ, γκ, μπ, ντ, τσ, τζ, ξ and ψ, and drop it before every other consonant: την ώρα but τη βοήθεια, την Κύπρο but τη Λεμεσό. The masculine τον, by contrast, keeps its -ν in careful writing whatever follows, precisely so that it cannot be confused with the neuter το. Second, Greek uses the definite article far more freely than English, including with abstract nouns, with proper names and with possessives: η Ελλάδα, ο Γιώργος, η ζωή είναι δύσκολη. Third, the genitive of possession follows its noun and takes the article too: το σπίτι του πατέρα.

The imparisyllabic classes are where a translation into Greek is most often let down, because their plurals are formed with an extra syllable that a learner does not expect. Ο ψαράς gives οι ψαράδες, των ψαράδων; ο καφές gives οι καφέδες; ο παππούς gives οι παππούδες; η γιαγιά gives οι γιαγιάδες. Neuter nouns in -μα form the genitive in -ματος and the plural in -ματα: το πρόβλημα, του προβλήματος, τα προβλήματα, των προβλημάτων. The specification also names two curiosities worth knowing: nouns of common gender, ο and η συγγενής, where only the article shows sex, and nouns with two plurals carrying different meanings, of which ο λόγος is the standard example, giving οι λόγοι, reasons, and τα λόγια, words.

Two further traps and then the adjectives. The feminine nouns in -ος are the classic one: η οδός, η μέθοδος, η περίοδος, η είσοδος, η ύπαιθρος, and the place names η Λεμεσός, η Πάφος, η Αμμόχωστος. They look masculine and behave as feminines throughout — της οδού, την οδό, οι οδοί, τις οδούς — and getting one wrong is a case-and-gender error of exactly the kind the examiner guidance names as costing marks. The accent also shifts in the genitive plural of many feminines: η ώρα gives των ωρών, η νίκη gives των νικών. As for adjectives, Appendix 2 enumerates eleven classes; the workhorse is -ος, -η, -ο, as in καλός, καλή, καλό, and the two that matter most beyond it are the -ύς, -ιά, -ύ type, βαθύς, βαθιά, βαθύ, and the -μένος type, αγαπημένος, which is a past passive participle used as an adjective and is listed separately in the grammar.

Neuter nouns, and the feminine in -ος

Fig. 2The neuters are the easiest gender in Greek because the nominative and accusative are always identical, which halves the work; the only real labour is the genitive singular, where -ο gives -ου, -ι gives -ιού with the accent on the ending, -μα gives -ματος, and -ος gives -ους with a plural in -η. The last column is the trap that catches almost every learner: nouns like η οδός, η περίοδος, η μέθοδος and the place names η Λεμεσός and η Πάφος end like masculines and decline as feminines throughout, which is why the article has to be learned with the word.

Worked example

Paper 2 Section A: a sentence in which case is the whole game

Translate into Greek. The mayor of the island thanked the volunteers of the association for the help they had given to the families of the fishermen.

Map the English relations onto Greek cases before writing anything
Six noun phrases, and every one of them has a case determined by its job. The mayor is the subject, so nominative. Of the island is possession, so genitive. Thanked takes a direct object, so the volunteers is accusative. Of the association is genitive again. For the help is a prepositional phrase with για, which takes the accusative. To the families is an indirect object expressed with σε plus the accusative. Of the fishermen is genitive. Doing this mapping first, before choosing a single word, is the habit that prevents the case mismatch the examiner guidance names.
Build the subject and its genitive
Ο δήμαρχος του νησιού. Ο δήμαρχος is a masculine in -ος, nominative singular. Το νησί is a neuter in -ι, and its genitive singular is του νησιού with the accent on the ending — one of the four neuter genitive patterns in the second table above. The genitive follows its head noun in Greek and takes its own article, so του νησιού, not any preposition. English of maps onto the genitive here and not onto από.
Build the object and the prepositional phrase
ευχαρίστησε τους εθελοντές του συλλόγου για τη βοήθεια. Ευχαρίστησε is the simple past of ευχαριστώ, a second-conjugation contracted verb. Ο εθελοντής is a masculine in -ης, so its accusative plural is τους εθελοντές. Ο σύλλογος gives του συλλόγου. Για takes the accusative, so την βοήθεια — except that the final nu of την drops before β, giving τη βοήθεια. That single letter is a rule, not a preference, and it is on the grammar list under the writing system.
Build the relative clause with the right tense and the right case
που είχαν προσφέρει στις οικογένειες των ψαράδων. Που is invariable and needs no case; the relativised noun, η βοήθεια, is the object of the giving, and Greek here is content without a resumptive pronoun because the sense is unambiguous. Είχαν προσφέρει is the pluperfect of προσφέρω, had given — the English had given demands it and the AO3 grid names the pluperfect as complex language. Σε plus the accusative gives στις οικογένειες. Ο ψαράς is imparisyllabic, so its genitive plural is των ψαράδων and not των ψαρών, which would be from τα ψάρια, the fish themselves.
Run the single-purpose check
Read the finished sentence once and look at nothing but the endings and the articles: ο, του, τους, του, τη, στις, των. Seven case decisions, and each of them is a mark. Then read it once for verbs: ευχαρίστησε, είχαν προσφέρει. Then, and only then, for sense. Reading for sense first is what makes candidates miss endings, because a sentence with the wrong case usually still makes sense to its author.

Result: Ο δήμαρχος του νησιού ευχαρίστησε τους εθελοντές του συλλόγου για τη βοήθεια που είχαν προσφέρει στις οικογένειες των ψαράδων.

Typical mistakes

A mismatch of cases, which the examiner guidance singles out by name as the error class that hinders clarity.
Treating η οδός or η Λεμεσός as masculine because the ending looks like one.
Forming the plural of an imparisyllabic noun as though it were parisyllabic: οι ψαροί for οι ψαράδες.
Dropping the article where Greek requires it, especially before proper names and abstract nouns.

Active revision

Write out the full singular and plural of ο άνθρωπος, η πόλη, το μάθημα and η οδός without looking, then check every form against the tables in this section. Then take a 100-word English paragraph and translate it into Greek, and mark your own version by reading it once for cases alone, ignoring everything else. That single-purpose pass is the fastest error-finder there is.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Greek (9GK0) specification (Pearson Edexcel)

The verb: aspect before tense, and the ten indicative tenses in two voices#

AdvancedPearson Edexcel 9GK0 Appendix 2, item 3 (v)–(vi) — the verb, all tenses of the indicative in active and passive voice, simple and continuous subjunctive and imperative, deponent verbs; gerund and participlesDfE GCE AS and A level subject content for modern foreign languages

The verb system: γράφω across tense, mood and voice

Fig. 3One verb, fully laid out, is worth more than a rule. Everything above the subjunctive line is indicative, and the specification names all ten of those tenses. Notice which forms come from which stem: γραφ- underlies the present, the imperfect, the continuous future and the imperfective subjunctive, while γραψ- underlies the simple past, the simple future and the whole perfect series. The mediopassive column is not an auxiliary construction but a separate set of endings, and the same column supplies the forms of deponent verbs such as έρχομαι, which have these forms and active meanings.

The Greek verb is organised around aspect first and tense second, and a candidate who grasps that has understood the system. Every verb has two stems: an imperfective one, which presents an action as ongoing, habitual or repeated, and a perfective one, which presents it as a single complete whole. Γράφω has γραφ- and γραψ-. From the imperfective stem come the present, the imperfect, the continuous future and the continuous subjunctive and imperative; from the perfective stem come the simple past, the simple future, the perfective subjunctive and imperative, and, with έχω, the whole perfect series. English marks this distinction only patchily, which is why a translation from Greek that flattens έγραφα and έγραψα into a single wrote loses a point every time.

The specification's Appendix 2 lists ten indicative tenses by name and requires them in both voices: present, imperfect, simple past, future simple, continuous future, future perfect, conditional, conditional perfect, present perfect and pluperfect. That inventory is longer than most learners expect and it includes three that English speakers rarely practise. The future perfect, θα έχω γράψει, means will have written. The conditional, θα έγραφα, is θα plus the imperfect and means would write. The conditional perfect, θα είχα γράψει, is θα plus the pluperfect and means would have written. The AO3 guidance names the pluperfect and the future perfect explicitly among the conceptually challenging tenses that constitute complex language, so these are not exotic extras; they are where marks live.

The mediopassive is the other half of the system and it is formed with its own endings rather than with an auxiliary. Γράφομαι, γραφόμουν, γράφτηκα, θα γραφτώ, έχω γραφτεί, είχα γραφτεί. It covers the true passive, το γράμμα γράφτηκε, the letter was written, and also reflexive and reciprocal senses, πλένομαι, I wash myself, and αγαπιούνται, they love each other. A large group of verbs, the deponents, have only mediopassive forms and active meanings: έρχομαι to come, γίνομαι to become, εργάζομαι to work, σκέφτομαι to think, φοβάμαι to be afraid, χρειάζομαι to need. The specification names deponent verbs specifically and expects them in all tenses, so έρχομαι, ερχόμουν, ήρθα, θα έρθω, έχω έρθει, είχα έρθει should be automatic.

Two non-finite forms complete the picture and both are on the grammar list. The gerund, η μετοχή σε -οντας, is invariable and formed from the imperfective stem: γράφοντας, writing; τρέχοντας, running; and, from second-conjugation verbs, μιλώντας, speaking, with the accent on the ending. It expresses an accompanying or causal action and is a compact way to build a subordinate clause, which is why it earns range. The past passive participle in -μένος is a full adjective and declines: γραμμένος, γραμμένη, γραμμένο; κουρασμένος, tired; αγαπημένος, beloved or favourite. It is the form that lets Greek say a written text, ένα γραμμένο κείμενο, without a relative clause, and one well-placed -μένος participle in an essay is worth more to the range grid than three ordinary adjectives.

Worked example

Paper 1 Section A: a passage in which aspect is the whole game

Translate into English for the points-based scheme. Κάθε καλοκαίρι πηγαίναμε στο ίδιο χωριό. Πέρσι πήγαμε μόνο μία φορά, γιατί ο παππούς είχε αρρωστήσει. Φέτος θα πηγαίνουμε κάθε Σαββατοκύριακο, αν βρούμε χρόνο· αν όχι, θα πάμε τουλάχιστον τον Αύγουστο.

Sentence 1 — the imperfect signals habit, and κάθε confirms it
Κάθε καλοκαίρι πηγαίναμε στο ίδιο χωριό. Πηγαίναμε is the imperfect of πηγαίνω, first person plural. The imperfect presents the action as repeated, and κάθε καλοκαίρι, every summer, makes the reading certain. English wants used to go or would go, not went. Κάθε καλοκαίρι is a bare accusative of time. Note that the whole of the aspect information is in the verb stem and ending; there is no adverb doing the work, which is why the tense has to be read rather than inferred.
Sentence 2 — the simple past against the imperfect, and a pluperfect behind both
Πέρσι πήγαμε μόνο μία φορά, γιατί ο παππούς είχε αρρωστήσει. Πήγαμε is the simple past of the same verb, from the perfective stem, and it presents the going as a single completed event — reinforced by μόνο μία φορά, only once. The contrast with πηγαίναμε in the previous sentence is the point of the paragraph. Είχε αρρωστήσει is the pluperfect of αρρωσταίνω, had fallen ill, and it establishes that the illness preceded the not-going. Three different past tenses in two sentences, and English needs three different renderings.
Sentence 3 — the two futures, and which is which
Φέτος θα πηγαίνουμε κάθε Σαββατοκύριακο … θα πάμε τουλάχιστον τον Αύγουστο. Θα πηγαίνουμε is the continuous future, formed from the imperfective stem, and means we will be going or we will go regularly. Θα πάμε is the simple future, from the perfective stem, and means we will go, once. Both are on the specification's list as separate tenses, and Greek makes the distinction obligatory where English makes it optional. Getting them the right way round in the English is worth two sections of language.
Sentence 3 continued — αν with the perfective subjunctive
αν βρούμε χρόνο· αν όχι, θα πάμε τουλάχιστον τον Αύγουστο. Βρούμε is the perfective subjunctive of βρίσκω, and αν takes it here because the finding is a single potential event. Αν όχι is an elliptical if not. The ano teleia sets the second condition against the first. Τον Αύγουστο is again a bare accusative of time, in August. The whole passage is a demonstration of one thing: in Greek the shape of the event is carried by the verb stem, and translating it faithfully means deciding, for every verb, whether the action is presented as a line or as a point.

Result: Every summer we used to go to the same village. Last year we went only once, because our grandfather had fallen ill. This year we are going to go every weekend, if we find the time; if not, we will at least go in August.

Typical mistakes

Choosing a tense by translating the English tense rather than by deciding the aspect first.
Using έχω with a past-tense form. The Greek perfect uses an unchanging non-finite form: έχω γράψει, never έχω έγραψα.
Confusing the perfect non-finite γράψει, with one lambda in verbs like επιβάλει, with the present επιβάλλουν, with two.
Treating a deponent as passive in meaning. Εργάζομαι means I work, not I am worked.

Active revision

Take one first-conjugation verb, one second-conjugation verb and one deponent, and write all ten indicative tenses of each in both voices where they exist, plus both subjunctives, both imperatives, the gerund and the participle. Then translate ten short English sentences that each require a different one of those forms. Doing the grid once properly is worth more than a term of reading.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Greek (9GK0) specification (Pearson Edexcel)

Clauses and clitics: να, θα, ότι, and where the weak pronouns go#

AdvancedPearson Edexcel 9GK0 Appendix 2, item 3 (iv) and (viii) — pronouns, all cases, weak and emphatic forms; common conjunctionsPearson Edexcel 9GK0 AO3 mark grids — complex language: subjunctive mood, use of subordination

Which particle takes which mood

Fig. 4Because Modern Greek has no infinitive, the choice of particle is the choice of clause type, and the mood follows from the particle rather than from the meaning of the main verb. This is the smallest table in this topic and probably the most useful: six of these constructions in a three-hundred-word essay is what the AO3 range grid means when it names the subjunctive mood and the use of subordination as complex language. Note the negative column implicitly: everything in the subjunctive rows is negated with μη or μην, and everything in the indicative rows with δεν.

Appendix 2 contains no syntax section, which does not mean syntax is unexamined; it means it is examined through the AO3 grids, whose definition of complex language names the subjunctive and the use of subordination outright. The organising fact of Greek clause structure is that there is no infinitive. Where English uses one — I want to go, it is difficult to explain, before leaving — Greek uses a finite verb introduced by να, with the person and number of its own subject: θέλω να πάω, είναι δύσκολο να εξηγήσω, πριν φύγω. Learning to reach for να automatically, and to conjugate the verb after it, is the single largest structural adjustment an English speaker has to make.

The particles form a small system that repays memorising as a system. Ότι and πως introduce factual statements and take the indicative: λέει ότι έρχεται, he says he is coming. Να introduces everything non-factual — wishes, purposes, possibilities, obligations, commands reported — and takes the subjunctive: θέλω να έρθει, πρέπει να φύγουμε, μπορεί να βρέξει. Θα forms the futures and conditionals with the indicative. Ας is the hortative, let us or let him: ας περιμένουμε. The negative differs by construction and this is where marks are lost: δεν negates the indicative, μη or μην negates anything after να and the negative imperative. Δεν έρχεται, he is not coming; να μην έρθει, let him not come; μην έρθεις, do not come.

The subordinators are worth learning with their moods attached. Πριν always takes the subjunctive: πριν φύγεις. Αφού and μόλις take the indicative for a real past and the subjunctive for a future or hypothetical: αφού τελείωσε, after it finished, but μόλις τελειώσω, as soon as I finish. Για να is in order to and always takes the subjunctive. Χωρίς να is without doing. Ενώ is while or whereas with the indicative. Αν και and παρόλο που are although. Με αποτέλεσμα να is with the result that, and it is the most efficient consequence-connective in the language. Deploying six of these in a 300-word essay is what the range grid means by the use of subordination.

The weak pronouns, οι αδύνατοι τύποι, are the last piece and the one that separates written-out Greek from translated English. They exist in genitive and accusative and are unstressed, so they lean on the verb. Placement: before a finite verb, including after να, θα and δεν — μου το έδωσε, θα σου το πω, δεν τους το επιτρέπουν, να μου στείλεις; but after a positive imperative and after the gerund — δώσε μου το, πες της, γράφοντάς του. When two clitics cluster, the genitive comes first and the accusative second: μου το, σου τα, της το. And when a clitic attaches to a proparoxytone word the word takes a second accent: ο δάσκαλός μου, ζήτησέ της, γράφοντάς του. Each of those three rules is mechanical, and each is a point in a points-based scheme.

The weak pronouns, and how they cluster

Fig. 5The weak or clitic pronouns carry no stress of their own and lean on the verb, which is why their position is fixed rather than a matter of style. They stand before a finite verb, including after να, θα and δεν, and after a positive imperative and after the gerund. When two of them cluster the genitive comes first and the accusative second — μου το, σου τα, της το — and when the host word is accented on its third-last syllable it takes a second accent to keep the whole group legal: ο δάσκαλός μου, ζήτησέ της. The emphatic forms in the last column are used for contrast and after prepositions.

Worked example

Paper 2 Section A: three imperatives, two clitic clusters and a negative

Translate into Greek. Tell her that I cannot come, and ask her to send me the documents before she leaves. If she has already sent them to me, do not tell her anything.

The first imperative, and where its clitic goes
Πες της ότι δεν μπορώ να έρθω. Πες is the perfective imperative of λέω. After a positive imperative the weak pronoun follows, so πες της, tell her, with the genitive because λέω takes a genitive of the person told. Ότι introduces a statement of fact and takes the indicative, δεν μπορώ. Μπορώ να έρθω uses να plus the perfective subjunctive of έρχομαι, a deponent — I cannot come. Three constructions in eight words, and every one of them is a decision the English did not force.
The second imperative, and the second accent it triggers
και ζήτησέ της να μου στείλει τα έγγραφα. Ζήτησε is the imperative of ζητώ and is proparoxytone, accented on its third-last syllable; adding the enclitic της would push the stress four syllables from the end of the group, which Greek does not allow, so the host takes a second accent: ζήτησέ της. This is not optional and it is on the grammar list under the position of the stress. Then να μου στείλει — here the clitic precedes, because the verb after να is finite, and it is the genitive μου because στέλνω takes a genitive of the recipient.
The subordinate clause of time
πριν φύγει. Πριν always takes the subjunctive in Greek, and the tense is not marked: φύγει is the perfective subjunctive of φεύγω and covers before she leaves, before she left and before she will leave alike, with the surrounding tenses supplying the time. A candidate who writes πριν φεύγει has used the imperfective and changed the meaning to something like before she is in the habit of leaving; a candidate who tries to write a past tense after πριν has produced something that is not Greek.
The clitic cluster, and the negative imperative
Αν μου τα έχει ήδη στείλει, μην της πεις τίποτα. Two clitics cluster before the finite auxiliary: genitive first, accusative second, μου τα, to me them. Ήδη sits inside the verbal group. Then the negative imperative, which Greek does not form from the imperative at all: it uses μην plus the subjunctive, μην πεις, and the clitic goes before the verb rather than after it, μην της πεις. That reversal — της after πες but before πεις — is the single clearest demonstration that clitic placement is grammatical rather than stylistic. Τίποτα completes the negative concord.
Check the three mechanical rules and nothing else
Read the finished Greek three times, once per rule. Rule one: is every clitic on the correct side of its verb — after πες, before στείλει, before έχει, before πεις? Rule two: is every cluster genitive-then-accusative — μου τα, not τα μου? Rule three: does every proparoxytone host followed by a clitic carry its second accent — ζήτησέ της? Each pass takes ten seconds and each finds a different error, which is why they are done separately.

Result: Πες της ότι δεν μπορώ να έρθω, και ζήτησέ της να μου στείλει τα έγγραφα πριν φύγει. Αν μου τα έχει ήδη στείλει, μην της πεις τίποτα.

Typical mistakes

Using δεν after να. The negative there is μη or μην, always.
Putting the clitic after the verb in an ordinary statement, which produces a word order Greek does not use.
Reversing the cluster: το μου instead of μου το.
Forgetting the second accent on the host word when a clitic follows a proparoxytone.

Active revision

Write ten short Greek sentences that between them use ότι, να, θα, ας, αν, πριν, μόλις, για να, χωρίς να and με αποτέλεσμα να, each once, and each containing at least one weak pronoun. Then check three things only: that the mood after each particle is right, that every negative is δεν or μην as the construction requires, and that every clitic is on the correct side of its verb.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Greek (9GK0) specification (Pearson Edexcel)

The two translations: one mark scheme, two different disciplines#

AdvancedPearson Edexcel 9GK0 Paper 1 Section A — translation into English, 20 marksPearson Edexcel 9GK0 Paper 2 Section A — translation into Greek, 20 marks

The two translation tasks look symmetrical and are not. Both are worth 20 marks, both draw their content from any one of the eight sub-themes, and both are marked by the same points-based scheme in which one mark is given for each correct individual section of language. But Paper 1 Section A gives you 20 minutes and Paper 2 Section A gives you 30, and the extra ten minutes are not generosity: producing Greek is harder than understanding it, and the errors that cost marks are different in kind. Into English, the failure mode is comprehension — a tense misread, an idiom taken literally, a relative clause misattached. Into Greek, the failure mode is production — a case mismatch, a wrong gender agreement, a clitic in the wrong place, an accent missing.

The points-based scheme has consequences that candidates routinely misunderstand. Because the mark is awarded per section of language rather than for the whole, a plain rendering that keeps every element beats an elegant one that quietly drops a connective; and because it is per section, a single catastrophic sentence does not sink the rest. That means the correct strategy is never to leave a gap. If you do not know a word, write the best approximation you can from context and move on: an approximation may earn its section, a blank cannot. It also means that a sentence you have mangled is worth going back to only after every other sentence has been attempted, because the marginal mark is always higher on an untouched sentence.

Into English, the method has four passes and takes about twenty minutes on a passage of the usual length. First, read the whole thing without writing, to establish who is doing what to whom; Greek word order is freer than English and the subject may be at the end. Second, translate sentence by sentence, and at each verb ask two questions before choosing an English tense: what aspect, and what voice. Third, deal with what Greek has and English does not — the resumptive pronoun in a relative clause, the bare accusative of time and duration, the genitive doing the work of of, the definite article before a proper name. Fourth, read the English alone, without the Greek, and ask whether it is a sentence; if it is not, you have mistranslated something and you now know where.

Into Greek, the method has five passes and takes thirty minutes. First, read the English and mark the structures that will force a Greek decision: every infinitive that will become να plus a verb, every passive, every perfect or pluperfect, every possessive that will become a genitive. Second, draft. Third, read for cases alone, checking every preposition, every object and every possessive against the article. Fourth, read for verbs alone, checking person, tense, aspect and voice. Fifth, read for accents and clitics. The reason for separating the passes is empirical: reading for sense finds almost nothing, because your own sentence always makes sense to you, while a pass that looks at one feature and ignores the rest finds nearly everything.

Worked example

The same content in both directions, with the two checking routines applied

Direction one, into English: Οι κάτοικοι του χωριού είχαν ζητήσει επανειλημμένα να επισκευαστεί ο δρόμος, χωρίς να λάβουν απάντηση. Direction two, into Greek: The residents of the village had repeatedly asked for the road to be repaired, without receiving an answer.

Into English, pass two: aspect and voice at every verb
Είχαν ζητήσει is the pluperfect of ζητώ, active: had asked. Να επισκευαστεί is the perfective subjunctive of the mediopassive επισκευάζομαι: that the road be repaired, or in natural English for the road to be repaired. Να λάβουν is the perfective subjunctive of λαμβάνω after χωρίς να: without receiving. Three verbs, one pluperfect and two subjunctives, one of them passive. An English version reading the residents asked for the road to be repaired and got no answer is comprehensible and loses two sections of language, the pluperfect and the χωρίς να construction.
Into English, pass three: what Greek has that English does not
Του χωριού is a genitive doing the work of of the village; there is no preposition to translate. Επανειλημμένα is an adverb, repeatedly, and it sits between the auxiliary and the non-finite form, where English cannot leave it. Greek has no infinitive, so να επισκευαστεί must become an English infinitive or a that-clause. And χωρίς να λάβουν, without plus a conjugated verb, becomes an English gerund. Each of those is a structural conversion rather than a word substitution, and each is where a section of language is won or lost.
Into Greek, pass one: mark what the English will force
Reading the English, four things are already decided. Had asked forces a pluperfect, είχαν ζητήσει. For the road to be repaired forces να plus a mediopassive subjunctive, because Greek has no infinitive and because repaired is passive. Without receiving forces χωρίς να plus a subjunctive. Of the village forces a genitive, not a preposition. Marking those four before drafting means the draft comes out right rather than being corrected into rightness.
Into Greek, pass three: cases alone
Οι κάτοικοι, nominative plural, subject. Του χωριού, genitive singular neuter — το χωριό gives του χωριού. Ο δρόμος, nominative singular, because it is the subject of the passive verb επισκευαστεί and not its object; writing τον δρόμο there is precisely the case mismatch the examiner guidance names, and it is the commonest error in this sentence. Απάντηση, accusative singular feminine, object of λάβουν. Four case decisions, checked with nothing else in mind.
Into Greek, passes four and five: verbs, then accents and clitics
Verbs: είχαν ζητήσει, third plural pluperfect active, agreeing with οι κάτοικοι; επισκευαστεί, third singular perfective subjunctive mediopassive, agreeing with ο δρόμος; λάβουν, third plural perfective subjunctive active, agreeing with the same subject as the main verb. Then accents: επανειλημμένα, επισκευαστεί, απάντηση all proparoxytone or paroxytone and each accented once. No clitics in this sentence, which is itself worth noticing — the pass takes two seconds when there is nothing to check, and that is not a reason to skip it.

Result: Into English: The residents of the village had repeatedly asked for the road to be repaired, without receiving any answer. Into Greek: Οι κάτοικοι του χωριού είχαν ζητήσει επανειλημμένα να επισκευαστεί ο δρόμος, χωρίς να λάβουν απάντηση.

Typical mistakes

Leaving a blank for an unknown word, which guarantees the loss of a section that a guess might have earned.
Polishing the English style at the cost of an element that was in the Greek. The scheme rewards elements, not elegance.
Reading your own Greek for sense as the only check. It will always make sense to you.
Spending the last five minutes rewriting the sentence you found hardest instead of checking the ones you found easy.

Active revision

Take a passage of about 90 words in each direction from any theme. Time yourself at 20 minutes into English and 30 into Greek, and run the prescribed passes rather than working straight through. Then, for the Greek version, mark yourself twice: once counting sections of language you are confident are right, and once counting only case errors. The gap between the two numbers tells you where your revision time should go.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Greek (9GK0) specification (Pearson Edexcel) · GCE AS and A level subject content for modern foreign languages (Department for Education)

References & sources

Sources

Pearson Edexcel

Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Greek (9GK0) specification

Department for Education

GCE AS and A level subject content for modern foreign languages

Grammar and translation: Appendix 2, Paper 1 Section A and Paper 2 Section A

5 sections~37 min reading time4 competenciesLevel Standard 1 · Advanced 4

Grammar and translation: Appendix 2, Paper 1 Section A and Paper 2 Section A

Key points

Reading for the accent: four sentences that change meaning without it

Key points

Paper 2 Section A: a sentence in which case is the whole game

Key points

Paper 1 Section A: a passage in which aspect is the whole game

Key points

Paper 2 Section A: three imperatives, two clitic clusters and a negative

Key points

The same content in both directions, with the two checking routines applied

Sources

Grammar and translation: Appendix 2, Paper 1 Section A and Paper 2 Section A

Key points

Reading for the accent: four sentences that change meaning without it

Key points

Paper 2 Section A: a sentence in which case is the whole game

Key points

Paper 1 Section A: a passage in which aspect is the whole game

Key points

Paper 2 Section A: three imperatives, two clitic clusters and a negative

Key points

The same content in both directions, with the two checking routines applied

Sources