Elementary New Testament Greek, 2014a

7: Pronouns
An Overview of 7 Types of Greek Pronouns
Now that you understand the basic idea of pronouns, let’s get a high-altitude look
at pronouns in Greek. We will carefully study the rst two types, Personal and
Demonstrative pronouns, but only familiarize ourselves (for now) with the last ve
types.
Only Familiarize For Now
3. Relative Pronouns
These pronouns open a new (dependent) clause linking it back to a noun in the
previous clause.
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1. Personal Pronouns
This, by far, is the most frequently used type of pronoun in the GNT, appearing over
10,000 times. It expresses all three persons, in both singular and plural. Its job is the
“simple replacement” of nouns.
In Greek: μ μ
In Greek:
In English:
English
Example:
(and all its forms)
who, whom, whose, which.
We saw them at her party, which was hosted at her aunt’s house.
I knew the sailors who were lost at sea. The CEO lauded the
donor whom we met earlier.
In English:
I, me, my; we, us,
our
you, your
(singular and plural)
he, him, his, she, her,
it, its, they, them,
their.
4. Interrogative Pronouns
These pronouns allow us to ask questions (whether directly or indirectly).
English
Example:
We saw them at her party. They were hosting it at the home of her
aunt.
In Greek:
In English:
(and all its forms)
who? whom? whose? what?
2. Demonstrative Pronouns
Second in frequency in the GNT, demonstratives “point out” by drawing our attention
either towards (here) or away from (there) the speaker. Given these directional
options, two distinct demonstratives are needed: the near and the far.
English
Example:
Whom did you see at the party? Who was there? (Direct
Question)
I was wondering who took my glasses from the desk. (Indirect
Question)
In Greek:
In English:
(the near demonstrative)
this, these
(the near demonstrative);
(the far demonstrative)
that, those
(the far demonstrative)
English
Example:
Do you like the brown shoes, or the red ones? These are a better
deal than those.