LESSON 10
PERSONAL PRONOUNS

τί γὰρ ὠφελεῖ ἄνθρωπον κερδῆσαι τὸν κόσμον ὅλον καὶ ζημιωθῆναι τὴν ψυχῆν αὐτοῦ;

Personal pronouns

1. First person

   	Singular			Plural
   	Emphatic form	Enclitic form	Meaning	Form	Meaning
   NOM	ἐγώ		I	ἡμεῖς	we
   GEN	ἐμοῦ	μου	of me	ἡμῶν	of us
   DAT	ἐμοί	μοι	to me, for me	ἡμῖν	to us, for us
   ACC	ἐμέ	με	me	ἡμᾶς	us

   1. The enclitic form is not as emphatic and will be explained later in these notes.
   2. You will find both forms in the New Testament.
   3. From these forms, you can see the origin of our English "me" and the French "moi."
   4. While the singular forms seem easy, some students have a hard time remembering this list of the first person plural personal pronouns.
   5. Perhaps the following apocryphal story will help.
      1. Once upon a time there were some nuns in a kitchen who were frightened by some mice.
      2. The nuns cried out, "Hey, mice."
      3. As they stood upon their chairs in fright, they said, "Hey, moan."
      4. Just then some priests came in, so the nuns said, "Hey, men."
      5. The priests chopped up the mice and the nuns said, "Hey, mass."
   6. Now you know these pronouns which sound like "Hey, mice; hey, moan; hey, men; hey, mass."
2. Second person

   	Singular		Plural
   	Form	Meaning	Form	Meaning
   NOM	σύ	you	ὑμεῖς	you
   GEN	σοῦ	of you	ὑμῶν	of you
   DAT	σοί	to you, for you	ὑμῖν	to you, for you
   ACC	σέ	you	ὑμᾶς	you

   1. Notice that these second person plural pronouns are very similar to the first person plural pronouns.
   2. "We" begins with an eta, "you" begins with upsilon.
   3. The easy way to remember this distinction is to note that υ is for "you."
   4. Notice that some people translate the second person singular pronoun as "thou, of thee, to thee, thee."
   5. But there is no reason to use these obsolete forms.
      1. When you say, "I love you," to your special someone, there is no confusion about singular and plural.
      2. There is nothing holy about using "thou/thee" when referring to God.
      3. However, when you translate a passage of Scripture, it is significant to know that the pronoun is singular or plural.
3. The third person pronoun

   	SINGULAR			PLURAL
   	MASC	FEM	NEUT	MASC	FEM	NEUT
   NOM	αὐτός he	αὐτή she	αὐτό it	αὐτοί they	αὐταί they	αὐτά they
   GEN	αὐτοῦ of him	αὐτῆς of her	αὐτοῦ of it	αὐτῶν of them	αὐτῶν of them	αὐτῶν of them
   DAT	αὐτῷ to/for him	αὐτῇ to/for her	αὐτῷ to/for it	αὐτοῖς to/for them	αὐταῖς to/for them	αὐτοῖς to/for them
   ACC	αὐτόν him	αὐτήν her	αὐτό it	αὐτούς them	αὐτάς them	αὐτά them

   1. Notice that the endings of these third person pronouns follow the endings of adjectives like ἀγαθός.

Use of the pronouns

1. A pronoun is a word which replace the noun.
   1. Sally kissed Jim because he loves her.
   2. The word "her" stands for "Sally" and "he" stands for "Jim."
   3. The noun to which the pronoun refers is called the antecedent.
   4. In the sentence above, "Sally" and "Jim" are antecedents for "her" and "he."
   5. The pronoun agrees with the antecedent in gender and number.
   6. Thus "her" is feminine and singular just as "Sally" is feminine and singular.
   7. Likewise "he" is masculine and singular just as "Jim" is masculine and singular.
   8. The case of the pronoun is determined by its use in the sentence.
   9. "Sally" is NOM, but "her" is ACC.
   10. Likewise "Jim" is ACC, but "he" is NOM.
2. In the same way, a Greek pronoun agrees with its antecedent in number and gender, but the case of the pronoun is determined by its use in the clause or sentence.
   1. Example
      1. βλέπω τὸν ἄνθρωπον καὶ γινώσκω αὐτόν.
      2. I see the man and I know him.
      3. The antecedent of αὐτόν (him) is ἄνθρωπον (man).
      4. The pronoun is masculine and singular just as the antecedent is masculine and singular.
      5. In this instance ἄνθρωπον is in the ACC case as the direct object of the verb βλέπω.
      6. αὐτόν is also in the ACC case not because it agrees with the case of its antecedent, but because it is the direct object of γινώσκω.
   2. Example
      1. βλέπω τὸν ἄνθρωπον καὶ λέγω αὐτῷ.
      2. I see the man and I speak to him.
      3. This time, αὐτῷ (to him) agrees with its antecedent in number and gender, but the case of the antecedent is ACC and the case of the pronoun is DAT.
3. You have already observed that many Greek words are either masculine or feminine when in English they would be neuter.
   1. We would never say, I see the church and I enter her.
   2. The word "church" in English is neuter; but in Greek, it is feminine.
   3. When you translate a Greek sentence into English, the pronoun may be masculine or feminine, but it should be translated in the English gender.
   4. βλέπετε τῆν ἐκκλησίαν καὶ βλέπω αὐτήν.
   5. You see the church and I see it.
   6. Don't say I see her because the pronoun refers back to the "church" which is feminine.
4. Generally a pronoun in the NOM case does not appear in a Greek sentence unless there is emphasis placed upon this pronoun.
   1. Thus βλέπω τὸν οἴκον means I see the house.
   2. There is no need for a separate pronoun to express the "I" idea.
   3. However, if you wanted to distinguish the subject or place emphasis upon it, you would use the pronoun:
   4. ἐγὼ βλέπω τὸν οἴκον means I see the house or Only I see the house or Yes, it is I who see the house.
5. The third person pronouns have special meanings
   1. When the third person pronoun in the NOM case is found in the predicate position (i.e., it does not have the article in front of it), it is intensive and means "himself," "herself," "itself," or "themselves."
      1. αὐτὸς ὁ ἄνθρωπος
         1. αὐτὸς is NOM (masc)
         2. there is no "the" in front of αὐτὸς (i.e., predicate position)
         3. therefore means the man himself
      2. ἥ κώμη αὐτή
         1. αὐτή is NOM (fem)
         2. there is no "the" in front of αὐτή
         3. therefore means the village itself
         4. not the village herself
   2. When the third person pronoun is in any case and in the attributive position (i.e., it has the article immediately in front of it), it is translated "same."
      1. ὁ αὐτὸς ἄνθρωπος means the same man
      2. ἡ αὐτὴ κώμη means the same village
   3. When any third person NOM form (i.e., αὐτός, αὐτή, αὐτό, αὐτοί, αὐταί, or αὐτά) is used along with a personal pronoun or by itself with the unexpressed subject of a verb, it is in the intensive form.
      1. αὐτὸς ἐγὼ λέγω means I myself say
         1. αὐτὸς is in NOM form
         2. αὐτὸς comes before the personal pronoun ἐγὼ
         3. This construction looks awkward to us because αὐτὸς is third person and ἐγὼ is first person
      2. αὐτὸς σὺ λέγεις means you yourself say
         1. αὐτὸς is NOM
         2. αὐτὸς comes before the second person personal pronoun σὺ
      3. αὐτὸς λαμβάνω means I myself take
         1. αὐτὸς is in NOM form
         2. αὐτὸς comes before the verb λαμβάνω which means I take
         3. there is no personal pronoun ἐγὼ this time
         4. Don't translate it He, I take or I take him
         5. αὐτὸς intensifies the pronoun of the verb
   4. When the third person personal pronoun in any case other than NOM is used, translate it like a regular pronoun (him, her, it, them)
      1. αὐτοὺς ἄγει means he leads them.
         1. Notice that the verb tells you that the subject is third person singular (he).
         2. The pronoun αὐτούς is plural ACC.
         3. It is the direct object of the verb and means them.
         4. Don't get fooled by the word order. It could have been written ἄγει αὐτοὺς
      2. αὐτῷ γράφω means I am writing to him.
         1. The pronoun αὐτῷ is in the DAT case
         2. The verb's personal ending tells you that the subject of the verb is first person singular.

Enclitic forms of pronouns

1. Enclitics are words which attach themselves so closely to the preceding word as to be pronounced with it.
   1. Usually they have no accent of their own.
   2. There are special rules about the placement of the accent when followed by an enclitic.
   3. Since most of your work will be reading Greek rather than writing Greek, just be aware that some words lose their accent while others might have two accents.
   4. Enclitic personal pronouns are used to express possession.
   5. ὁ λόγος μου becomes the word of me which should be translated my word.
   6. When a personal pronoun follows a preposition, the emphatic form is often used
      1. ἐξ ἐμοῦ is used rather than ἐκ μου.
      2. Also you might see ἀπ̓ ἐμοῦ instead of ἀπό μου.
      3. However, in the New Testament, the unemphatic form πρός με is frequently found.

Translate the following:

1. οἱ μαθηταί σου γινώσκουσι τὴν ἐκκλησίαν καὶ ἄγουσι τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς αὐτῶν εἰς αὐτήν.
2. διδάσκω τοὺς υἱούς μου καὶ λέγω αὐτοῖς παραβολήν.
3. διὰ σοῦ ὁ θεὸς ἄγει τὰ τέκνα εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν αὐτοῦ καὶ δι᾿ αὐτῶν τοὺς ἄλλους.
4. ἐγώ εἰμι δοῦλος, σὺ δὲ εἶ ἀπόστολος.
5. ἐστὲ προφῆται τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ ἄγγελοι ἀγάπης.
6. ὁ ἀπόστολος πιστός ἐστιν, οἱ δὲ δοῦλοι αὐτοῦ εἰσὶ πονηροί.
7. οἱ ἀδελφοὶ ἡμῶν βλέπουσιν ἡμᾶς καὶ ἡμεῖς διδάσκομεν αὐτούς.
8. γινώσκομεν τὴν ὁδόν, καὶ δι᾿ αὐτῆς ἄγομεν ὑμᾶς εἰς τὸν οἶκον ἡμῶν.