Forming nouns with case endings
Creating noun forms is similar to creating finite verb forms: (1) you find the stem from the dictionary entry, (2) add the proper ending, and (3) apply the appropriate accent. For finite verbs, you had to choose the appropriate principal part and find its stem. For nouns, you use the genitive singular form (the second word in a dictionary entry), and drop the genitive ending. It is essential to recognize the genitive endings confidently. (Note that many of the genitive endings look similar to the forms of the article you’ve just learned.)
Two worked examples
Example 1: παιδίον, παιδίου, τό
If we wanted to have a sentence with the word “children” as its subject, we could put the noun παιδίον in the nominative plural.
The case ending we will use depends both on the noun’s gender and what declension it belongs to. We can see from the dictionary listing above that this is a neuter noun with a genitive singular ending in -ου and and a nominative singular ending in -ον. That tells us we’re working with a second declension noun.
Now we’re ready to go through the three steps to create a form. We can drop the -ου from the genitive singular and remove any accent to find the stem:
(1) παιδίον -> παιδι-
Next we need to find the correct ending for a masculine noun of the second declension. Here are the endings for the nominative and genitive forms of second declension neuters:
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | -ον | -α |
| Genitive | -ου | -ων |
So step 2, apply the proper ending, looks like this:
(2) παιδι + α -> παιδια
Finally, we need to apply the appropriate accent. Recall that for finite verbs, the accent is normally recessive: it goes back as far from the end as accent rules allow. Nouns and adjectives follow a different principle: their accent is persistent. That is, it “tries” to stay on the same syllable at all times, unless the standard accent rules force it to change. Look at the nominative and genitive forms given in the dictionary entry to figure out what syllable the accent wants to persist on. Here, we can see that both nominative and genitive are accented with an acute on the penult. (If you’re extra sharp on your accent rules, you’ll notice that we have an acute both when the final syllable is long -ου and when it is short -ον, so the iota that the stem ends with must be short.)
(3) παιδια -> παιδία
Example 2: δῶρον, δώρου, τό
Let’s do the same thing with another second declension neuter noun, a noun meaning “gift.” Let’s put it in the nominative plural so we could have a sentence with the word “gifts” as its subject.
Find the stem:
(1) δῶρον -> δωρ-
Since δῶρον is also a neuter noun of the second declension, we’ll use the same ending as in the previous example.
(2) δωρ + α -> δωρα
Finally, we’ll apply the persistent accent. We can see that in both the nominative and genitive singular, the accent falls on the penult. In the nominative, we have to use a circumflex because we have a long penult + short ultima; in the genitive, the ultima is long, so we have to use a grave accent. The final alpha of the neuter plural ending is short, so we’ll use a circumflex here.
(3) δωρα -> δῶρα