lesson 9 index printable pages

9.2a: Personal pronouns of the 1st and 2nd persons

English, of course, declines the personal pronouns, so the equivalences between Greek and English are easy to figure out.  Here is  the declension of 1st and 2nd personal pronouns of the singular and plural.

first person
	singular	plural
nominative	ἐγώ	ἡμεῖς
genitive	ἐμοῦ / μου	ἡμῶν
dative	ἐμοί / μοι	ἡμῖν
accusative	ἐμέ / με	ἡμᾶς

second person
	singular	plural
nominative	σύ	ὑμεῖς
genitive	σοῦ / σου	ὑμῶν
dative	σοί / σοι	ὑμῖν
accusative	σέ / σε	ὑμᾶς

In the singular, there are alternative forms in both of these persons.  The first form listed, in each one, has more emphasis than the second.  In the first person the letter  ἐ and the accent, in the second person the accent, mark the emphatic form.

Because endings of verbs almost always identify which grammatical person is the subject, when the Nominatives  ἐγώ, σύ, ἡμεῖς, ὑμεῖς are expressed, they are intensive or emphatic. As you will see below, this is even truer of the 3rd. person pronoun.

EXAMPLE

           main clause                         dependent clause

[ τί¹ οὖν βαπτίζεις]  ( εἰ σὺ οὐκ εἶ  ὁ Χριστός;)

  adv                      V                               S                V               PN

Why do you baptize, if (since) YOU are not Christ?

Note 1)  This use of  τί   is adverbial; it is equivalent to  διὰ τί;   "on account of what" = why?