Greek Prose Composition and Comprehension
What the domain tests
Prose composition and comprehension tests active control of Attic Greek. You must produce correct Greek sentences and short paragraphs, and construe unseen Greek accurately. Examiners reward grammatical accuracy, appropriate idiom and clear structure, not ambitious vocabulary that collapses in syntax.
Core rules
- Conditions: future open condition ἐάν + subjunctive; past simple εἰ + imperfect/aorist indicative; past contrary-to-fact εἰ + imperfect/aorist indicative with ἄν in the apodosis. Use μή, not οὐ, in conditional clauses.
- Purpose and result: ἵνα/ὅπως + subjunctive, or optative in historic sequence; ὥστε + infinitive for result.
- Indirect question: a finite verb follows verbs of asking, often retaining the tense and mood of the direct question, or taking the optative in historic sequence.
- Word order: Greek allows flexibility, but postpositives (μέν, δέ, γάρ, οὖν) stand second; the verb often comes late.
Worked example
English: "If we had not helped the city, it would have been destroyed." This is past contrary-to-fact. Use εἰ μὴ τῇ πόλει ἐβοηθήσαμεν, αὕτη ἂν ἀπώλετο. ἐβοηθήσαμεν is aorist indicative with augment; βοηθέω takes a dative. The apodosis needs ἄν with the aorist indicative ἀπώλετο. The negative is μή because the clause is conditional. Checking each element separately prevents a fluent but ungrammatical sentence.
Traps
Putting οὐ in a conditional; omitting ἄν; confusing aorist and imperfect stems; forgetting that ὅτι takes a finite verb while indirect statement may take accusative + infinitive; composing English word order and hoping Greek word order follows.