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2.5: What about the article in Greek?

If you examine the complete chart of the declension of ἄνθρωπος presented in 2.4 and below, you will notice that  each case of the noun is preceded by a short word which,  except in the nominative singular, has the same ending as the noun.  It is the Greek article, which (MEA CULPA) I started smuggling in already in lesson 1.  The article is  not used in the Vocative.  ὦ is an interjection.

Greek only had a definite article, equivalent to ours, "the."  Since all the nouns learned in these two lessons are masculine, the article that accompanies them is masculine (articles  must agree in every way with the nouns they accompany).  In lesson 3 we will add the neuter article and in lesson 4, where feminine nouns are studied, the feminine article.  If you are curious about the forms of the article in the three genders, in singular and plural, click here for a chart of its declension.  It will be true in the three genders that you need to learn only the nominative singular, for all the other endings are the same as those of the nouns we are studying so far.

It will take a good amount of reading to be able to predict, starting from English, when the Greeks were likely to have used an article, and when they would omit it.  Their use of articles is remarkably different from our use in English or other modern languages.  But this rule of thumb will help:

When there is an article in Greek, translate "the."  When there is no article, translate the noun in the singular with our indefinite article, a / an, and in the plural without an article.  But especially, if your translation is unidiomatic or makes no sense in English, change it to whatever you feel the sense of the Greek text requires.  For instance, we would not say "the Socrates,"  or "the men" if we are talking in general about men, isn't that true?

Examples: 

ὁ ἵππος =  the horse         οἱ ἵπποι   =  the horses

ἵππος   =  a horse           ἵπποι  =  horses, some horses