beginning Athenaze, two questions

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akhnaten
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beginning Athenaze, two questions

Post by akhnaten »

1) Is a workbook necessary if I supplement the text with the official teacher's manual, and online drills and exercises provided by universities teaching with Athenaze? I cannot find an example of a workbook without buying it, and I do not think an answer key exists--so am hesitant to purchase if I can find other resources that accomplish the same thing.

2) At the beginning of Athenaze, only nom. sing. are given for nouns, and gender is indicated presumably by article. Later in the book, it looks like it follows the form of Mastronarde and gives nom. and gen. sing. when introducing new vocabulary. I have gone through a handful of units of Mastronarde, and gen. sing. is always introduced with a new noun, as well as gender. I am not at a point in Mastronarde where it becomes clear why gen. forms need to be memorized with the nom., but I assume it is often irregular, or is used in a stem, or some such thing that will eventually become understood.

I like to learn fairly systematically. Is it advisable to go through and memorize nouns in both nom. and gen. sing., as well as gender, despite how it is introduced in Athenaze?

daivid
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Re: beginning Athenaze, two questions

Post by daivid »

akhnaten wrote:1) Is a workbook necessary if I supplement the text with the official teacher's manual, and online drills and exercises provided by universities teaching with Athenaze? I cannot find an example of a workbook without buying it, and I do not think an answer key exists--so am hesitant to purchase if I can find other resources that accomplish the same thing.
It is useful as it has a number of completely new readings (about 15-20). I found them very good practice.

( I assume you mean Athenaze, an introduction to ancient Greek : workbook I / Gilbert Lawall, James F. Johnson, Luigi Miraglia. )
λονδον

mwh
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Re: beginning Athenaze, two questions

Post by mwh »

As to 2, yes, if you like to learn systematically you should definitely memorize gen. along with nom. and gender. It's more useful than the nom. when you get to the 3rd declension, where it gives you the stem (which in the nom. may be hidden) and so enables you to form all the rest of the cases (most of the time, anyway).

Learn the accent too while you're about it. And the vowel quantities (-ας is long in 1st decl., for instance, but short in 3rd decl.; if you're interested in why, historical linguistics will tell you). You'll find it pays off.

akhnaten
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Re: beginning Athenaze, two questions

Post by akhnaten »

thanks for the reply. i appreciate your tips on memorization. i've gone through a bit of other texts, and they also stress the importance of memorizing these elements. i began reading hansen and quinn today for a better understanding of accentuation, and the importance of gen. for forming stems is stated explicitly in that text--whereas Mastronarde may wait til introducing consonant-declension.
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I am referring to the workbook you cite more clearly. Are answers provided to the exercises in the workbook? the teacher's manual only provides answers/translations for the exercises within the general text. also, did you use workbooks for books I and II, or only the first volume?
THANKS again.

akhnaten
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Posts: 72
Joined: Wed Jul 23, 2008 11:25 pm

Re: beginning Athenaze, two questions

Post by akhnaten »

thanks for the reply. i appreciate your tips on memorization. i've gone through a bit of other texts, and they also stress the importance of memorizing these elements. i began reading hansen and quinn today for a better understanding of accentuation, and the importance of gen. for forming stems is stated explicitly in that text--whereas Mastronarde may wait til introducing consonant-declension.
---
I am referring to the workbook you cite more clearly. Are answers provided to the exercises in the workbook? the teacher's manual only provides answers/translations for the exercises within the general text. also, did you use workbooks for books I and II, or only the first volume?
THANKS again.

daivid
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Re: beginning Athenaze, two questions

Post by daivid »

akhnaten wrote: I am referring to the workbook you cite more clearly. Are answers provided to the exercises in the workbook? the teacher's manual only provides answers/translations for the exercises within the general text. also, did you use workbooks for books I and II, or only the first volume?
THANKS again.
Yes, including translation of the readings but I have only seen the first volume.
λονδον

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