Unit 25, Part II, Exercise 1

Greek Learning Greek
1

Χαίρετε!

I am working on Dr. Mastronarde’s Introduction to Attic Greek, Unit 25, Part II, Exercise 1, and fell flat.

I am supposed to translate the following passage into Greek,

“Will the thieves be clever enough to conceal any of their many unjust deeds from the others?”

I wrote, “ἔσονται οἱ κλῶπες σοφοὶ ὥστε τινὰ τοὺς πολὺν ἄδικα ἔργα ὐμῶν τούς ἄλλους κρύπτειν;”

Answer book wrote, “οἱ κλῶπες σοφοὶ ἔσονται ώστε τοὺς ἄλλους τι τῶν πολλῶν ἀδίκων ἔργων κρύψαί;”

  1. I struggled with whether to put τοὺς πολὺν ἄδικα ἔργα in the genitive or accusative because there is a genitive, but there is also a rule that verbs such as “conceal” take an accusative for the object and persons.

  2. I am confused that “ti” is not in the accusative, since “conceal” usually takes an accusative.

  3. Shouldn’t an interrogative have the verb at the beginning?

  4. Why did the answer book not place “τοὺς ἄλλους” in second to last position?

  5. I do not know what kind of verb “κρύψαί” is. Is it a future infinitive or aorist infinitive? Why not just use the regular present infinitive?

2

All respectable questions Lukas.

  1. As you say, verbs of concealment take double accusative. So you were right to opt for accusative. However, τοὺς πολὺν ἄδικα ἔργα won’t do, since τους (masc.acc.pl.) πολυν (masc.acc.sing.) doesn’t agree with αδικα εργα, neut.pl. And see 2.

  2. τι is accusative. Remember, in the neuter, nom. and acc. are always the same. So τι τῶν … means “any of …”, and the two accusatives are τους αλλους and τι.

  3. No.

  4. It could have, but it’s not necessary. There’s no fixed order.

  5. κρύψαι is aorist infin., cf. παῦσαι, λῦσαι, etc. (Future is κρύψειν.)
    Aorist not present is the default tense to use. You’d use present if the action were continuing, or beginning, or some such. It’s a matter of aspect, and Greek uses the aorist unless there’s some particular reason to use the present.

Hope this helps.

3

I thought the number with ti should agree with the number of ἔργα, hence τινὰ.

κρύψαι is aorist infin., cf. παῦσαι, λῦσαι, etc. (Future is κρύψειν.)
Aorist not present is the default tense to use. You’d use present if the action were continuing, or beginning, or some such. It’s a matter of > aspect> , and Greek uses the aorist unless there’s some particular reason to use the present.

I was wondering later if the answer book considered it a completed action, but to me it may or may not be.

Hope this helps.

It does.

4

τι is neut acc sing; τῶν…ἔργων is partitive genitive. E.g., compare:

οὐκ εἶδον οὐδένα (Ι didn’t see anyone)

οὐκ εἶδον πολίτην οὐδένα (Ι didn’t see a citizen)

οὐκ εἶδον τῶν πολιτῶν οὐδένα (Ι didn’t see any of the citizens; partitive genitive)

5

Lukas, on τι sing. not τινα pl. in sentence 2, “"Will the thieves be clever enough to conceal any of their many unjust deeds from the others?” τι τῶν πολλῶν ἀδίκων ἔργων. “any” here means “any one”, while τινα would mean “some.”
Either way you need the genitive with it (a “partitive” gen., as phalakros explains): τι w/ gen. “any of” (any one of) vs. τινα w/ gen. “some of” (certain ones of).

τι without the genitive would just mean “something” or “anything.”