Greek Language and Translation
What the domain tests
The Greek language and translation paper at MATSEC Advanced level asks you to construe continuous Attic Greek and turn it into accurate, readable English. It tests morphology, syntax, accentuation, vocabulary and idiom, not paraphrase. You need to recognise how case, voice, mood and particles carry meaning before you choose an English construction.
Core rules
- Case and construction: the genitive absolute (τούτων λεχθέντων, "when these things had been said") has its own subject and participle; it is not a possessive genitive. The articular infinitive (τὸ λέγειν) is verbal but takes the case of its article.
- Indirect statement: after verbs of saying or thinking, Greek uses accusative + infinitive (ἔφη τοὺς ἄνδρας ἀπιέναι), not ὅτι unless the writer wants a finite clause.
- Particles: μέν... δέ marks contrast; γάρ gives reason; οὖν inference; ἄρα discovery. Translate the logical force, not a mechanical "on the one hand".
- Accentuation: verb accents are recessive; noun accents persist. Final-syllable rules decide acute versus circumflex, and enclitics throw their accent back.
Worked example
Ἐπεὶ δὲ ταῦτα εἶπεν, οἱ μὲν στρατιῶται ἐθορύβησαν, ὁ δὲ στρατηγὸς οὐδὲν ἀπεκρίνατο. Identify the main clauses: οἱ στρατιῶται ἐθορύβησαν and ὁ στρατηγὸς οὐδὲν ἀπεκρίνατο. ἐπεί is temporal with εἶπεν (aorist), so "when/after he said this". μέν... δέ contrasts soldiers and general. οὐδέν is an adverbial accusative, "nothing". Translation: "When he had said this, the soldiers raised a clamour, but the general answered nothing." The reasoning matters more than a smooth guess: the aorist εἶπεν precedes the main verbs.
Traps
Literal rendering of μέν as "on the one hand" in every sentence; missing that a middle verb may be transitive; ignoring accents and so misreading enclitics; translating the genitive absolute as "of"; forcing English tense sequence onto Greek aspect.