One More Unit 9 Question

Greek Learning Greek
1

One more question about Unit 9, infinitives:
I am supposed to write, “Because of their wealth the rich are permitted to flee difficult tasks.”
Yesterday I had “rich” in the wrong case, so today I wrote:

“δια τον πλουτον εξεστι τοις πλουσιοις χαλεπα εργα φύγειν.”

I just noticed that the answer book added an article:

δια τον πλουτον εξεστι τοις πλουσιοις τα χαλεπα εργα φύγειν."

Is the “τα” necessary or optional? If it is necessary, what is the rule that places it there?

Lukas

2

Maybe because Χαλεπα εργα is abstract? That is all I can think of.

Λουκασ

3

I think this is an example of the generic article, which Mastronarde discusses in Unit 3 on p. 38: ‘Substantives that refer to an entire class and make a general statement usually are accompanied by the definite article in Greek.’ The definite article in your sentence signals that not just some difficult tasks, but difficult tasks in general, are meant.

4

Thank you. Sometimes I have difficulty determining if a substantive is referring to a class or not. I am still awkward with Greek definite articles.


Λουκᾶς