Module 1: the Greek verb
Overview of module 1
Language: overview
Module 1 introduces these features of Greek:
- verbal expressions expressing a subject and action
- how to recognize finite verb forms and identify them with tense, voice, mood, person, number
- principal parts of Greek verbs
- the aorist and imperfect indicative tenses
Ancient Greek in action: overview
Different languages imagine the world and express thoughts about it differently. To narrate past events, for example, English does not have a single verb tense that correspond to the ideas expressed by the Greek imperfect tense. What does reading and translating involve when there are several choices and no one exact equivalent? Module 1 includes reflections of English speakers encountering a past tense in Spanish and Italian that is similar in its range of meaning to the Greek imperfect tense.
Reading: overview
In our reading in module 1, we meet Euphiletos, the speaker in Lysias, Oration 1. Euphiletos describes the early days of his marriage (to a wife who is never named). We will begin to consider and grapple with cultural as well as linguistic concepts and differences.