3.4 Nouns: The Feminine — Epoché
What you will be able to do Decline a feminine noun of either type: γλώσσα , γλώσσας , γλώσσες , γλωσσών . Say why the feminine has no work to do in the accusative singular, and what that costs you elsewhere. Read the final sigma on a feminine noun as a genitive, the opposite of what it means on a masculine one. Use the feminine articles in all four cases: η , της , την , οι , των , τις . Put a feminine noun after a verb without changing it: Μιλάς τη γλώσσα μου; . Prerequisites : 3.3 — the masculine nouns and the four cases. Read 3.3 Grammar first; this lesson is built on the contrast with it. The feminine has two types where the masculine had three, and the two differ only in their last vowel. That makes this the easiest of the three genders to learn, and it is worth taking the saving, because the neuter in the next lesson will spend it again. There is also one genuine simplification. In the masculine you had to remove a sigma to make the object; in the feminine the object is identical to the subject in the singular. A feminine noun standing alone gives you no information about its case at all, and the article in front of it does the whole of the work. That is the trade this gender makes: fewer endings on the noun, more weight on the little word in front. The pattern Here is the first type, the one whose nominative ends in the vowel of father . Case and job One More than one Nominative, the subject η γλώσσα οι γλώσσες Genitive, the possessor της γλώσσας των γλωσσών Accusative, the object την γλώσσα τις γλώσσες Vocative, calling out γλώσσα γλώσσες Read the second column again. Three of the four cells hold the same word, and only the genitive is different. The article does the distinguishing: the subject takes a one-letter article, the object takes a three-letter one, and the possessor takes another. So a feminine noun is a case where you cannot afford to skip the article, because without it a Greek sentence would be genuinely ambiguous. The second type ends in the vowel of machine and behaves identically, changing only the vowel. Case The second type, one The second type, more than one Nominative η ζωή οι ζωές Genitive της ζωής των ζωών Accusative την ζωή τις ζωές Two observations are worth writing down. First, the plural is the same for both types: an ending that sounds like the vowel of bed followed by a sigma, and the nominative and accusative plural are again identical. Second, both types make the genitive singular by adding a sigma, and the genitive plural by moving the stress to the last syllable and ending in the same way every Greek genitive plural ends. That first point deserves a warning attached. On a masculine noun the final sigma marks the subject; on a feminine noun it marks the possessor. The same letter means opposite things depending on the gender of the word it is attached to. This is the single commonest source of misreading for a beginner, and the cure is the article, which is never ambiguous. What you see What it is What the article says φίλος masculine, subject the masculine nominative article goes with it γλώσσας feminine, possessor the feminine genitive article goes with it φίλου masculine, possessor the masculine genitive article, and the vowel has changed γλώσσα feminine, subject or object the article decides, and nothing else can How English says it English has nothing to match the feminine genitive singular, because English forms its possessive with the same apostrophe and s for every noun. What an English speaker has to acquire is not the idea but the habit of reading the small word in front. English speakers skim articles; they carry almost no information in English, and the eye learns to jump over them. In Greek they carry the case, the gender and the number, which means that skimming them throws away most of the grammar of the sentence. The practical consequence shows up in the corpus sentences below. Μιλάς τη γλώσσα μου; and Ποια είναι η πρωτεύουσα της χώρας; both contain a feminine noun with the same stem shape, and the only thing that tells you the first is an object and the second a possessor is the article. If you read the nouns and skip the articles, you have read two sentences and understood neither. There is a second English habit to unlearn, which is the assumption that a country or a language will not need an article. Αγαπώ τη χώρα μου. puts the article on the word for a country where English has only the possessive; and abstract nouns behave the same way, as you saw in lesson 3.1. Feminine abstract nouns are extremely common in Greek — most of the words English borrowed in -y , such as philosophy , democracy and energy , are feminine nouns of the second type — so this habit will be exercised constantly. Finally, a word about the vocative. The feminine has none to speak of: you call to a woman with the same form you would use as a subject, and the only change is that the article goes away. After the masculine, where a distinct vocative exists for one whole type, this is a relief, and it means that the Greek for Maria! is simply the name. Real sentences Eighteen lines from the public corpus, arranged by case. Read the Greek aloud, name the case of the feminine noun, and check yourself against the third column rather than against the English. Greek English The case, and what tells you Η ζωή είναι όμορφη. [1] Life is beautiful. nominative of the second type; the article is one letter Η ζωή είναι καλή εδώ. [2] Life is good here. nominative again, with an adjective in the feminine Η ζωή μου είναι εδώ. [3] My life is here. nominative with the possessive after the noun Ποια γλώσσα είναι; [4] Which language is it? nominative of the first type, after a feminine question word Μου αρέσει αυτή η γλώσσα. [5] I love this language. nominative with a demonstrative, which also agrees Η Αυστραλία είναι όμορφη χώρα. [6] Australia is a beautiful country. nominative in the predicate, with no article at all Ποιες χώρες έχουν το καλύτερο κλίμα; [7] Which countries have