The relative pronoun
The relative pronoun is used to create dependent clauses that further describe or define a noun or pronoun in a sentence. The relative pronoun in English is who, which, or that. When the relative pronoun refers to a person or persons, translate it with forms of who and notice that this pronoun is inflected in English:
- who is the “subjective” case in English, corresponding to the nominative
- whose is the possessive genitive
- and whom is the objective case, used with prepositions in English and as the object of the verb, corresponding to other uses of the genitive, and uses of the dative and the accusative.
Declension of ὅς, ἥ, ὅ
| Case | Singular | Plural | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masc | Fem | Neut | Masc | Fem | Neut | |
| Nominative | ὅς | ἥ | ὅ | οἵ | αἵ | ἅ |
| Genitive | οὗ | ἧς | οὗ | ὧν | ὧν | ὧν |
| Dative | ᾧ | ᾗ | ᾧ | οἷς | αἷς | οἷς |
| Accusative | ὅν | ἥν | ὅ | οὕς | ἅς | ἅ |
Notes on the forms of ὅς, ἥ, ὅ
- the forms of the relative pronoun are similar to those of the article, without the initial tau that the article has in most forms and with a rough breathing on all forms. Note the difference in the masculine nominative singular ὅς from the article ὁ. With forms of the relative pronoun like ἥ, οἵ, and αἵ, the only difference between the article and the relative pronoun is the accent on the relative pronoun form.
- the accent pattern is also like that of the article, and like a persistent accent on the ultima: acute on nominative and accusative forms and circumflex on genitive and dative forms.