In Dr. Mastronarde’s work for Unit 27, Part I, Exercise 10, I need to write, They will be unable to equip triremes because they are not rich."
I wrote, “τὰς τριήρεις παρασκευάζειν οὐ δυνήσονται ὡς οὐ πλούσιοι.”
The answer book wrote, "ὡς οὐ πλούσιοι ὄντες τὰς τριήρεις παρασκευάζειν οὐ δυνήσονται.
Two questions:
Is ὄντες necessary?
Besides that, I am using similar words, but the phrases are reversed. Does Greek prefer a subordinate clause before the main clause?
- Is ὄντες necessary?
Ask yourself did you deliberately leave it out or did it not occur to you use it? These exercises are giving practice in participles and yet you wrote a sentence without one.
Yes you do need to use the participle here.
Does Greek prefer a subordinate clause before the main clause
Greek word order is very flexible. You have seen examples in M.'s text where the participle clause comes second but here he puts it first. I confess I dont know why except that putting “ὡς οὐ πλούσιοι ὄντες” first emphasises it. Perhaps he wrote the answer in that way to remind you that word order is flexible?
It did not occur to me. I still struggle as to when to use a Greek “be” verb.