In English, the articles are: a, an, the. video
- “a” and “an” are indefinite, and “the” is definite. video
- Articles function as adjectives and are usually attached to a noun.
Greek:
The article has case, number, and gender.
- The article always agrees with the noun that it modifies in case, number, and gender (principle 7).
- The article differs only slightly from the relative pronoun (BBG 14.7).
There is no indefinite article in Greek, and so an anarthrous noun like ἀδελφός means either brother or a brother (usually the latter). Greek has, however, a definite article, and where the Greek article does not appear, the definite article should not be inserted in the English translation. Thus ἀδελφός does not mean the brother. §26
|
masculine |
feminine |
neuter |
|
|
nominative singular |
ὁ |
ἡ |
τό |
|
genitive singular |
τοῦ |
τῆς |
τοῦ |
|
dative singular |
τῷ |
τῇ |
τῷ |
|
accusative singular |
τόν |
τήν |
τό |
|
nominative plural |
οἱ |
αἱ |
τά |
|
genitive plural |
τῶν |
τῶν |
τῶν |
|
dative plural |
τοῖς |
ταῖς |
τοῖς |
|
accusative plural |
τούς |
τάς |
τά |
See principles 15, 18, 24, 28. Also, “ο δε” means “but he.”
Hebrew:
The article in Hebrew is a ה prefixed to the front of a noun. Typically, the ה will be followed by a patah with a dagesh in the following letter; see here or this video. Sometimes syncope occurs.
הַשָּׁמַיִם
If the next letter is a guttural (gutturals will never take a dagesh), the patah will lengthen to a qamats.
הָאָרֶץ