Greek Nouns: Second Declension 

Nouns are words that name persons, places, things, or ideas. Nouns in Greek have three grammatical categories: gender, number, and case.

 3.1. Gender

There are three genders in Greek: masculine (M), feminine (F) and neuter (N). There is no specific rule that determines why a particular noun has a particular gender. The gender is grammatical and often corresponds with certain word endings.

3.2. Number

There are two numbers in Greek: Singular and Plural. Verbs agree with their subject in number. In other words, if the subject is singular, then the main verb must be singular as well. Consequently, if the subject is plural, then the main verb must be plural as well.

 Examples: 

ἀπόστολος βλέπει      an apostle sees
ἀπόστολοι βλέπουσι   apostles see

3.3. Case

Cases reveal the roles of words in the Greek sentence. They show how the words function. It could be said that what the word order does in English, the cases do in Greek. There are five cases in Greek:

Nominative represents the subject (People see the apostles).
Genitive represents the possessor (The word of God).
Dative represents the indirect object (Jesus gave food to people).
Accusatives represents the object (The apostles see people).
Vocative represents the addressee (O people, listen to God).

We will continue speaking about cases later when discussing the rules of translation.

3.4. Declension

In Greek, the inflection of nouns is called declension. The Greek language has three declensions. The second one is simpler and has more words (595 in NT); thus, it is often studied first.

Most of the nouns in the second declension are:

1. Masculine nouns ending in –ος.
2. Neuter nouns ending in –ον.

Declension of the Masculine Noun ἄνθρωπος “man”

	Singular			Plural
Nom.	ἄνθρωπος	a man	Nom.	ἄνθρωποι	men
Gen.	ἀνθρώπου	of a man	Gen.	ἀνθρώπων	of men
Dat.	ἀνθρώπῳ	to a man	Dat.	ἀνθρώποις	to men
Acc.	ἀνθρώπον	a man	Acc.	ἀνθρώπους	men
Voc.	ὦ ἄνθρωπε	O man	Voc.	ὦ ἄνθρωποι	O men

The nominative and vocative cases often share the same forms (compare N. and V. plural)
The part of a noun that doesn’t change is called stem.
To find the stem of nouns the ending –ου is dropped from the Gen. singular: ἀνθρώπ–
The nominative singular is a lexical form, that is the form which you find in the dictionary/lexicon. Thus, ἄνθρωπος is the lexical form which you see in the lexicon.

Masculine Case Endings of the Second Declension

	Singular		Plural
Nom.	–ος	Nom.	–οι
Gen.	–ου	Gen.	–ων
Dat.	–ῳ	Dat.	–οις
Acc.	–ον	Acc.	–ους
Voc.	–ε	Voc.	–οι

These endings must be memorized.

The Vocative case is very rare in the NT (less than 1% of all nouns). For this reason, it is not crucial for memorization. Often it appears with the interjection ὦ = O!

Declension of the Masculine Noun with an Accent on the Last Syllable: υἱός “son”

	Singular			Plural
Nom.	υἱός	a son	Nom.	υἱοί	sons
Gen.	υἱοῦ	of a son	Gen.	υἱῶν	of sons
Dat.	υἱῷ	to a son	Dat.	υἱοῖς	to sons
Acc.	υἱόν	a son	Acc.	υἱούς	sons
Voc.	ὦ υἱέ	O son	Voc.	ὦ υἱοί	O sons

Note how precisely the case endings follow their paradigm.
The declension of the neuter nouns is somewhat similar with minor modifications.

Declension of the Neuter Noun δῶρον “gift”

	Singular			Plural
Nom.	δῶρον	a gift	Nom.	δῶρα	gifts
Gen.	δώρου	of a gift	Gen.	δώρων	of gifts
Dat.	δώρῳ	to a gift	Dat.	δώροις	to gifts
Acc.	δῶρον	a gift	Acc.	δῶρα	gifts
Voc.	ὦ δῶρον	O gift	Voc.	ὦ δῶρα	O gifts

Note that in neuter nouns of the second declension Nom.=Acc.=Voc. in both numbers.

 Neuter Case Endings of the Second Declension

	Singular		Plural
Nom.	–ον	Nom.	–α
Gen.	–ου	Gen.	–ων
Dat.	–ῳ	Dat.	–οις
Acc.	–ον	Acc.	–α
Voc.	–ον	Voc.	–α

Note that both Masculine and Neuter nouns have the same endings in Gen. and Dat. in both numbers.

3.5. Greek Word Order

In Greek the word order is a freestyle! It changes depending on emphasis in a phrase.

1. ἀπόστολος λέγει λόγον
2. λόγον ἀπόστολος λέγει
3. λέγει ἀπόστολος λόγον

These three sentences mean the same: An apostle speaks a word.

Translation happens by observing the endings, not by observing the order.

When translating, you need to find: a) the subject (nominative case), b) its verb, c) the direct object (accusative case) and d) the indirect object. Due to the fact that the subject is often omitted in Greek, the verb may contain the only subject (see previous lesson).

1. Find a verb in each clause of a sentence.
2. Find nouns in relation to the verb: nominative (your subject) and accusative (object).
3. Finally try to construct the overall meaning of each clause and the entire sentence.

Translate from the Bible

1. νόμον ἔχομεν (John 19:7)
2. ἔχει ὁ υἱὸς ἀνθρώπου authority (Mark 2:10)
3. καὶ ἁμαρτωλοὶ ἁμαρτωλοῖς lend money (Luke 6:34)
4. κἀγὼ ἔργα ἔχω (Jam 2:18) [κἀγὼ = καί + ἐγώ = and I]
5. λέγει κύριος (Heb 8:8)