Quote:
Originally Posted by Archaea
I'm currently struggling through Greek and working on Arabic, before I go to Hebrew.[yeah I read some of the letters, but Arabic is totally cool just in reading it. http://www.omniglot.com/writing/arabic.htm]
Arabic is kicking my butt so I don't know what to do with Hebrew. It's not as fluid as Arabic. I also kinda like Aramaic; it's really cool, but not too many speak it.
You failed to answer one of my many Greek questions. It seems most verbs are omega verbs with a few IMAI verbs. Are those the only base form endings for verbs. Is there also some basic vocabulary building exercises. Reading the Bible helps but it doesn't help when reading Plutarch or especially Homer. Any hints for vocab building? |
I took a quarter of Arabic before I realized there were easier electives out there (hello, Pistol Marksmanship!).
There are really two types of verbs - the regular "omega" verbs and the "mi" verbs. Practically all verbs in Greek can be Omega or -"mai" verbs. It depends on the voice (active or passive). Some are more common in one voice than the other and some only exist in one voice, so that's how they're classified.
The other form is the 'mi' verbs, most common ones like eimi (both of them - to go and to be). So, I'm jumbling this answer, but essentially the omega endings are active 1st person singular, the -mai endings are 1st person middle/passive, and the -mi verbs are their own irregular creatures.
As for vocabulary, the best way to build it is to read a lot of the same author or the same time period. I go through a text once, looking up all the words that I don't know and writing them on a piece of notebook paper with notes about meaning, form, case, etc. Then, later, I read over the text again with the notes in hand. Eventually, I can read the text without the notes. Often, a word will come up that you've already noted, so you can refer back to it (or if you're like me, realize too late that you've looked the same word up 17 times). It's a process. Skipping around is cool for breadth, but you're not doing yourself any favors at being able to read fluidly. It just takes time.
The easiest prose, in my opinion, is the 4th century writers like Xenophon or Plato (although Plato's meaning is never all that easy; you know the words but what they mean is another problem altogether). Poetry is generally harder, with lots of obscure words and strange word order to keep meter.