A preposition is a bridge word that either relates one noun to another noun or qualifies the action of the verb. The preposition takes a prepositional object, and the whole unit (preposition plus object) is called a prepositional phrase.
Here are examples of prepositional phrases that qualify nouns:
In these examples, the prepositional phrase tells us more about a noun by answering the question “which one”?
Compare this against prepositional phrases that function adverbially, to answer questions like “where”, “when” or “how”:
In all of these examples, the preposition (e.g., “in”, “behind”, “on”) serves as a bridge word that relates the prepositional object either to another noun or to the verb’s action.
In Greek, a preposition usually has some sort of core location or direction inherent in its definition. To take some examples from the Week 6 Vocabulary:
ἀπό embodies the sense that a noun is moving away from something; ἐν embodies the sense that a noun is in a location; and εἰς embodies the sense that a noun is moving into a location. Other prepositions indicate different directions or locations; for example, πρός indicates motion to or toward something, while παρά indicates that something is near or next to something else.
In Greek, prepositional objects can be in one of the oblique cases (meaning the genitive, dative, or accusative). Some prepositions take only one case as an object. For example, note how εἰς in the Week 6 Vocabulary is followed by (+ acc.). This means that εἰς tends to be used only with the accusative case. Similarly, ἐν takes the dative, while ἐκ and ἀπό take the genitive.
Other prepositions, however, can take a noun in any of the oblique cases as an object. The differences in using one case over another can vary from small semantic differences to entirely discrete translations. Take, for example, μετά in the Week 6 Vocabulary. When its object is in the accusative case, μετά means “after”:
However, when the object of μετά is in the genitive case, μετά means “with”:
So, you must both know what the preposition means and pay attention to the case of its object; the case of the object can change that definition, the meaning of the prepositional phrase, and the idea being communicated by the sentence.
With prepositions that can take any of the three oblique cases, there is often a rationale to the use of one case versus another. We’ve discussed how each preposition has a location or direction inherent in its definition, but the case of a prepositional object also has a direction or location inherent in it:
When we combine the case of the prepositional object with the direction/location in the preposition, we can create specific and interesting pictures about how a verbal action works. Note, for example, the difference in the following two sentences:
The direction of “down” is inherent in the preposition κατά, and it indicates in what direction the subject is coming (ἦλθον κατά - they came down). The object of the preposition, then, fills out the picture further. If we use the genitive, which indicates motion away from the object, the image that we get is of the subject climbing down from the tree, presumably from a high branch to the ground below: ἦλθον κατὰ τοῦ δένδρου, they came down from (κατά + gen.) the tree. However, if we use the accusative, which indicates motion toward the object, the image that we get is of the subject approaching the tree, presumably from higher ground to the tree on a lower level: ἦλθον κατὰ τὸ δένδρον, they came down to (κατά + acc.) the tree. These nuances draw a more detailed and complete picture of how a verbal action occurs.
Elision is …
Many verbs in Greek may be prefixed with a preposition to form new verbs. For example, we can combine δείκνυμι, “to show”, with the preposition ἐπί, “to” or “toward”, to form the verb ἐπιδείκνυμι:
Note how we simply attach the ἐπί to the front of the verb, but its ι drops off in forms that begin with a vowel through a process called elision. If the final vowel of a prefix is elided by a verb form that begins with a rough breathing, the final consonant of the prefix may be aspirated. For example, if ἐπί were attached to a verb that begins with ἁ, the aspiration of the rough breathing would interact with the π to form ἐφα- (rather than ἐπα-).