Unit 11
A case is a suffix added to show the role of the word in the sentence - like object, subject, etc. English and a few other languages have almost dropped that concept apart from pronouns but most languages use it to ruin everyone's day.
Greek is fairly kind to us - it only needs four cases: Nominative, Genitive, Accusative, and Vocative.
The vocative case is used to talk about someone by name, there's no suffix change so no need to stress over it.
Nominative case is used when you're talking about something - you "nominate" or "name" it. Most simplistically this is the dictionary form of the words.
Αυτός ο άντρας είναι ο αρχιτέκτονας - This man is the architect.
Genitive case is used for the indirect object of the action such as possession, i. e answer the question to whom. Certain prepositions requite genitive - άνευ, διά, εναντίον, εκτός, εκ, εξ, εξαιτίας, λόγω, μέσω, μεταξύ, προ and υπέρ. Certain verbs also requite this case:
| Expression | γνέφω , λέω, μιλάω, χαμογελώ, απευθύνομαι, εξομολογούμαι |
| Sensations | αρέσω, βρομάω, ξινίζω, and μυρίζω |
| Ownership | ανήκω and βρίσκομαι |
| Association | ναλογώ, μοιάζω, ταιριάζω |
| Modality | αξίζω and χρειάζομαι |
Αυτός είναι ο άντρας του αρχιτέκτονα. - This is the man of the architect.
Accusative case is used for the direct object of the action, i.e. answers the question whom. It's also used for references, measurements or content. Some prepositions require Accusative case by default, regardless of any other condition - those are πό, με, σε, για, ανά, παρά, ίσαμε, πριν, σαν, ως, μέχρι, χωρίς,δίχως, προς, μετά and κατά.
Ο άντρας ξέρει τον αρχιτέκτονα. - The man knows the architect.
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