Wednesday, January 11, 2006

greek to me

i have confronted problems with syntax and grammar in my young days...

manolis as he nods towards eats, shoots and leaves that he's dipping into these days and that i too have sitting in my pile of books to read... eventually...

atic syntax... i used to know this... 40 years ago i could tell you why but now i can't...

he said he had no way of finding the answer now so i told him that i'd find out, and so i turn to you oh readers...

greek syntax... in the (greek) statement:

the chidren play, you use the singular of play and not the plural... atic syntax apparently and there is a reason for it, but manolis has forgotten...

answers on a postcard (in the comments)

x

2 comments:

cello said...

In 'children play', play *is* in the plural, as in 'they play'. Singular would be 'children plays', as in 'he plays'. Is that what you meant, or have I missed the point entirely?

longcat said...

the question concerns the greek language, not the english, although i don't know greek and have therefore expressed it in english, badly,

thankyou for giving it a go, what you've said would help me to better express the question.. but sadly not answer it...

the question is therefore:

in greek (or perhaps in this particular form of greek - attic) the expression:

the children play is actually the children plays, the singular instead of the plural.

why is this?

x