This and That

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Lukas
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This and That

Post by Lukas »

I am just starting Unit 13 and am having a little confusion over the words for "this" and "that." If I wanted to write something such as, "This person . . ." while "that person . . . " would I write ὅδε for this and οὗτος for that? Or would I use ἐκεῖνος for that?
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bedwere
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Re: This and That

Post by bedwere »

As a first approximation, ὅδε and οὗτος means "this", the first for someone about to be mentioned, the latter for somebody already mentioned.
ἐκεῖνος means that

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Re: This and That

Post by seneca2008 »

Coderch’s Greek Grammar available here http://coderch-greek-latin-grammar.weeb ... rammar.pdf is useful. See page 63 for examples. I would have copied and pasted all he says but the Greek is not properly encoded.
/ Difference οὗτος/ὅδε Both οὗτος and ὅδε mean THIS; nevertheless, οὗτος is used in reference to something which was already mentioned or is supposed to be already known by the reader:
To put it concisely: οὗτος “looks backwards” and ὅδε “looks forwards”.
Mastronarde is fairly clear here.
ὅδε, ἥδε, τόδε, this, referring to something very near, usually present or in sight
οὗτος, αὕτη, τοῦτο, this, the nearer. This word usually indicates something rela-tively close to the speaker, but not so close as something referred to by ὅδε
When used by itself, οὗτος most commonly refers backward, but occa-sionally it may refer forward. When contrasted with ἐκεῖνος, οὗτος means the latter versus the former. When contrasted with ὅδε, οὗτος refers backward (the foregoing vs. the following).
It takes a while to get your head round this.
Persuade tibi hoc sic esse, ut scribo: quaedam tempora eripiuntur nobis, quaedam subducuntur, quaedam effluunt. Turpissima tamen est iactura, quae per neglegentiam fit. Et si volueris attendere, maxima pars vitae elabitur male agentibus, magna nihil agentibus, tota vita aliud agentibus.

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Lukas
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Re: This and That

Post by Lukas »

So distance of time or space determines which word to use?
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Lukas
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Re: This and That

Post by Lukas »

In Unit 13, Part III, exercise 5, I was supposed to write, "Those beloved children" in the accusative.
I wrote, "Ταῦτα τὰ φίλα παιδία."

The answer book wrote, "ἐκεϊνα τὰ φίλα παιδία.."

I am unable to fine the line between Ταῦτα and ἐκεϊνα .

Would different authors have written different words for it?
Last edited by Lukas on Tue Apr 16, 2019 11:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: This and That

Post by jeidsath »

those - ἐκεῖνα

these - ταῦτα
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