Recognising Gender in -ος ending

Are you learning Koine Greek, the Greek of the New Testament and most other post-classical Greek texts? Whatever your level, use this forum to discuss all things Koine, Biblical or otherwise, including grammar, textbook talk, difficult passages, and more.
Post Reply
User avatar
jayvyn
Textkit Neophyte
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Sep 25, 2013 10:53 am
Location: United Kingdom

Recognising Gender in -ος ending

Post by jayvyn »

I have been studying hermeneutics. I have difficulty in recognizing gender in Koine Greek. Since both masculine and feminine ends in -os. E.g. Λογoς and όδος. Both of those two words end in -ος. How would I know the gender use?

User avatar
Σαυλος
Textkit Fan
Posts: 240
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2013 2:47 pm

Re: Recognising Gender in -ος ending

Post by Σαυλος »

The best option is to not worry about it. Read, absorb, and carry on. You will learn that ὁδος is feminine in the same way English learners find out that when talking about a ship, they should say, "She is beautiful."

Regarding hermeneutics, it makes no difference in meaning if I read "It is beautiful" or "she is beautiful." In the same way, it makes no difference in meaning if I say,
  • ἡ ὁδός ἐστίν καλή. The road is beautiful.
    ὁ λόγος ἐστίν καλός. The word is beautiful.
I will babble until I talk. ετι λαλαγω...

User avatar
jayvyn
Textkit Neophyte
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Sep 25, 2013 10:53 am
Location: United Kingdom

Re: Recognising Gender in -ος ending

Post by jayvyn »

Does it mean that gender doesn't matter in hermeneutics? One thing, why the article use become differ in gender i.e., ό and ή? E.g. ὁ λόγος ἐστίν καλός. You use article ό while in your second sentence ἡ ὁδός ἐστίν καλή. You use article ή.

uberdwayne
Textkit Fan
Posts: 266
Joined: Sun Oct 10, 2010 3:29 am
Location: Ontario, Canada

Re: Recognising Gender in -ος ending

Post by uberdwayne »

Does it mean that gender doesn't matter in hermeneutics?
Gender does matter when it comes to pronouns... Very important! However, the article (ὁ, ἡ, το)itself has the same meaning whether its masculine, feminine or neuter.
why the article use become differ in gender i.e., ό and ή? E.g. ὁ λόγος ἐστίν καλός. You use article ό while in your second sentence ἡ ὁδός ἐστίν καλή. You use article ή.
That is because ὁδός is a feminine word and if its articular, the article needs to, by strict grammatical rule, be the same gender that its noun is. I cannot think of any exceptions to this example. λόγος on the other hand is maculin, which requires the masculin article ὁ.
μείζων ἐστὶν ὁ ἐν ὑμῖν ἢ ὁ ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ

User avatar
jaihare
Textkit Zealot
Posts: 959
Joined: Mon Oct 22, 2007 2:47 am
Location: Tel Aviv, Israel
Contact:

Re: Recognising Gender in -ος ending

Post by jaihare »

jayvyn wrote:I have been studying hermeneutics. I have difficulty in recognizing gender in Koine Greek. Since both masculine and feminine ends in -os. E.g. Λογoς and όδος. Both of those two words end in -ος. How would I know the gender use?
As you learn Greek, you will learn that most first-declension nouns (ending with α or η in the root) are feminine and most second-declension nouns (ending with ο in the root) are either masculine or neuter (with different endings in the nominative and accusative). However, there are some masculine nouns that end with -ης (having -η as the end of the root) and are of the first declension, and some feminine nouns that end in -ος and are of the second declension.

I don't know what you mean by asking if this has hermeneutical import. It is very clear which nouns are masculine and which are feminine by: (1) accompanying modifiers (as Dwayne mentioned above), and more simply (2) what you find in the dictionary. You can surely search in a lexicon without even looking at the word's context and see if it is marked as masculine or feminine. What type of hermeneutical import could you possibly be searching for within the gender of a noun?

It should be rather clear, though, that you would have trouble recognizing gender in a language that you haven't studied. I assume that you also have trouble recognizing tense. Not having learned Greek (apparently), how would you know whether ἔπεμψα is aorist or imperfect – or even what the difference between aorist and imperfect is? I would think that these distinctions have more hemeneutical significance than the gender of a noun (which is really unimportant in the grand scheme of things).

Post Reply