Here are some really simple explanations that have evolved from our e-mails on

 

That wretched Grammar jargon

 

Nouns are names of things (including persons): house, field, slave, etc.

They may be subject of a verb: subject is the one doing or being whatever happens in the sentence..

 

Verbs describe doing and being:

 

1)  The farmer works in the field. ὁ αὐτουργός πονεῖ  .... 

 

 2) He loves his farm.   φιλεῖ τὸν κλῆρον 

 

3) The farm is beautiful.  ὁ κλῆρός ἐστι καλός

 

In those exx. Works, loves,  and is  are the verbs.

 

Farmer αὐτουργός  and farm κλῆρος are nouns.

 In the first ex. Farmer is subject of the sentence—he’s the one who works in the field.

 

Farm in the second example τὸν κλῆρον  is the direct object of the verb (think of him falling down and hugging the earth!)

 

In the 3rd ex. farm κλῆρος is the subject of ‘is beautiful’ καλός.

 

Beautiful καλός is an adjective, descriptive word.

 

Now for the names of CASES:

 

Nominative just means subject or ‘complement’—anything equal to the subject, as in the last sentence

The farm is beautiful.  ὁ κλῆρός ἐστι καλός,    both κλῆρός and καλός are nominative.

 

Try to remember it etymologically, from piecing out internal meaning:

 remember that ‘nominative’ comes from Latin nomen  = name.

So this is the principal form of the noun (=name), the one you use for the subject, main actor in a sentence

 

Accusative is direct object, like  ‘the farm τὸν κλῆρον  in the 2nd example.

 

The term comes from confrontation: this is the form for the person accused or seized upon as the object of blame.

 

Genitive is like possessive = ‘of’ or –‘s.  The term implies ‘genesis’, source or origin, hence possession etc.

 

And Dative is indirect object, to or for whom, as in ‘I give money to the wife’

(money is direct object, wife is indirect).

 

Dative is from Latin for ‘give’ as in data, the givens. So  in a sentence like

ὁ δεσπότης φέρει σῖτον τῷ δούλῳ

think of that -ῳ on the end as ‘given to’ or ‘for’ him.

 

 

Now we have the distinction of ‘conjugation’ vs. ‘declension’:  for both we speak of adding 'endings' to a 'stem'.

 

Conjugation is literally, ‘joining together’ the VERB stem with ending: so the pattern of verbs with endings is ‘conjugation’

 

Declension of NOUNS and ADJECTIVES is so called because the ancient grammarians arranged the patterns with nominative at the top and the other ‘CASES’ (lit. ‘fallings’) DECLINING or falling away from that nominative.

 

Keep at it. Don’t get frustrated. The best way to learn is just keep trying to understand the sentences.

If you want to send me a few questions or examples by e-mail, that’s cool.