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2.1: Whose?  Of what?  Genitive case

We change the endings of nouns and pronouns in English constantly as a substitute for the prepositional phrase "of someone or something."  This is the most resilient remaining case in the English language.  Grammar books call it possessive or genitive case. In writing we indicate it with apostrophe and s (although the apostrophe tends to be forgotten or misplaced...):  John's book, this project's goal, in the plural  apostrophe after the s:victims' rights, etc.  A very common function of the Greek genitive case (by no means the only one!) is similar.  A word in the genitive depends upon a noun or pronoun which, in turn, may have any function whatsoever in the sentence.  For the nouns we have studied so far the endings of the genitive are:  singular  -ου, plural  -ων.   

EXAMPLES    (click to hear soundfile.less2)  

Note that the genitive does not need to precede the element it modifies.  In Greek it may be placed before or after it.

In this example the genitive is in a position that we will encounter frequently, between the article and the noun.  Later we will call this the attributive position.

We can now chart the nominative, the accusative, and the genitive of one of the nouns we know: φίλος.   The article is used in many of these examples and charts to facilitate learning of the endings.  The article has its own endings: click here if you wish to glance at the complete declension of the article.  Yet, with the exception of the nominative singular, the endings of the nouns we are learning are the same as those of the article. 

Observations

The bad news:  One cannot transform a singular into its plural by simply adding, as in English does, a simple mark ("s" or "es"). Each case has its own plural, so it is necessary to remember both the singular and plural endings of each case.

The good news:  The endings of the article will not pose a problem after you learn nouns of this type.  You must have noticed that they are very similar.

"Running" a noun through its different cases is called "declining" it.  While verbs are conjugated, nouns, adjectives, pronouns, etc., are declined.  When you practice declining a few nouns and do the corresponding drills, you will be able to do it smoothly. 

Start by the Declension exercise on three cases.  When you can do it comfortably, you will be ready to work on 2.2 and 2.3.