🗣️ Prepositions, negatives and particles

The prepositions make precise the relations the cases give only roughly (chapter 11). Many of them take two or three cases, with the genitive for "from", the dative for "at" and the accusative for "to", as the old cases suggest. The negatives οὐ and μή divide the field between fact and the rest. The particles are the small words that join sentences and colour them: δέ, γάρ, οὖν, μέν, γε, δή, ἄρα. Greek prose links almost every sentence to the one before with a particle, and much of the meaning of a dialogue of Plato is in them. This chapter gives the prepositions by case, the negatives, and the main particles, with counts from the Septuagint, whose Hebrew source joins its clauses with and.

Contents

1. Prepositions with one case
2. Prepositions with two or three cases
3. Improper prepositions and prepositions as prefixes
4. The negatives οὐ and μή
5. Coordinating particles: καί, τε, δέ, ἀλλά
6. μέν … δέ
7. Causal and inferential particles: γάρ, οὖν, ἄρα
8. Particles of emphasis: γε, δή, μήν, τοι
9. The particles of the Septuagint
10. How Mova handles it
11. Sources

1. Prepositions with one case

(smyth-1920 §§1681–1698)

ἐκ becomes ἐξ before a vowel. εἰς and ἐν are one word in origin (*ἐνς and ἐν), and the Koine confuses them: εἰς for ἐν "in" is frequent in the New Testament.

2. Prepositions with two or three cases

(smyth-1920 §§1681–1698)

The general rule: the genitive for "from" (the ablatival genitive), the dative for "at" (the locative dative), the accusative for "to" and "along". παρὰ βασιλέως "from the king", παρὰ βασιλεῖ "at the king's court", παρὰ βασιλέα "to the king". As in Latin (la chapter 8, §3), the case after one preposition tells direction from position.

3. Improper prepositions and prepositions as prefixes

Improper prepositions are adverbs used with a case, never compounded with verbs (smyth-1920 §§1699–1702): ἄνευ "without", ἕνεκα "for the sake of" (often after its noun), μέχρι, ἄχρι "until, as far as", πλήν "except", χωρίς "apart from", ἐγγύς "near", ἔμπροσθεν "in front of", ὀπίσω "behind", ἐναντίον "opposite, before" — all with the genitive. In the Septuagint ἐναντίον and ἐνώπιον "before (someone)" render the Hebrew lip̄nê "to the face of" and are frequent (ἐναντίον 42 times in PTNK Genesis and Ruth; UD 2.18, 2026-10-22).

As prefixes, the prepositions form compound verbs, and their meaning there is often spatial or completive: ἀπο-θνῄσκω "die (off)", κατ-εσθίω "eat up", συλ-λαμβάνω "seize together, arrest". The augment stands after the prefix (chapter 7, §4). A compound verb often takes the case of its prefix: ἐκβάλλω τῆς πόλεως "throw out of the city".

Anastrophe. A disyllabic preposition placed after its noun throws its accent back: τούτων πέρι "about these things" (smyth-1920 §175).

4. The negatives οὐ and μή

οὐ (οὐκ before a smooth vowel, οὐχ before a rough one) is the negative of fact and statement. μή is the negative of will, wish, condition and thought (smyth-1920 §§2688–2709):

In questions, οὐ expects "yes" and μή (μῶν) expects "no": οὐκ ἀληθῆ λέγω; "am I not telling the truth?"; μὴ ἀληθῆ λέγει; "he isn't telling the truth, is he?".

Two negatives. Unlike Latin (la chapter 8, §7), a compound negative after a simple one of the same kind strengthens it: οὐδεὶς οὐδὲν εἶπεν "nobody said anything" (smyth-1920 §2761). A simple negative after a compound one cancels it: οὐδεὶς οὐκ ἔπαθε "everyone suffered". The combinations οὐ μή + aorist subjunctive "certainly not" (a strong denial) and μὴ οὐ (after verbs of fearing and doubting) are fixed.

5. Coordinating particles: καί, τε, δέ, ἀλλά

• καί "and; also, even" (smyth-1920 §§2868–2891). καί … καί "both … and". As an adverb: καὶ σύ "you too", καὶ εἰ "even if".
• τε (enclitic, like Latin -que) "and", binding closely: τε … καί, τε … τε "both … and": ἄνδρες τε καὶ γυναῖκες "men and women alike".
• δέ (postpositive) "and, but", the commonest link between sentences, marking a new step or a contrast (smyth-1920 §§2834–2839). It stands second in its clause.
• ἀλλά "but", strongly adversative: οὐ τοῦτο ἀλλὰ ἐκεῖνο "not this but that" (smyth-1920 §§2775–2786).
• ἤ "or"; ἤ … ἤ "either … or"; after a comparative "than".
• οὐδέ, μηδέ "and not, nor, not even"; οὔτε … οὔτε "neither … nor".

6. μέν … δέ

μέν (postpositive) marks a word or clause as the first of two that are set against each other or simply balanced. δέ marks the second (smyth-1920 §§2903–2919):

οἱ μὲν ἀπῆλθον, οἱ δὲ ἔμενον "some went away, others stayed" ἐγὼ μὲν οὐκ οἶδα, σὺ δὲ οἶσθα "I do not know, but you do"

The balance need not be a contrast: Greek prose structures paragraphs, lists and arguments with μέν and δέ, and μέν may stand without a following δέ (the "solitary" μέν: "for my part"). μέν οὖν "so then" closes one topic and opens the next. ὁ μέν … ὁ δέ "the one … the other" is in chapter 5, §8.

7. Causal and inferential particles: γάρ, οὖν, ἄρα

• γάρ (postpositive) "for", giving the reason or explanation of what precedes (smyth-1920 §§2803–2820). It often introduces a story after a statement: "for (here is how it happened)".
• οὖν (postpositive) "so, then, therefore": the inference or the resumption of a narrative (smyth-1920 §§2955–2964).
• ἄρα (postpositive) "then, so it seems, after all": an inference that comes as a realization (smyth-1920 §§2787–2800); ἆρα (with circumflex) introduces a question.
• τοίνυν "well then", τοιγαροῦν "therefore".

8. Particles of emphasis: γε, δή, μήν, τοι

• γε (enclitic) "at least, at any rate, indeed": it limits or stresses the word before it: ἔγωγε "I at least".
• δή (postpositive) "indeed, now, clearly": it marks what is evident or a step in an argument (smyth-1920 §§2840–2847).
• μήν "truly", in καὶ μήν "and yet, moreover", ἀλλὰ μήν "but surely", ἦ μήν (in oaths).
• τοι (enclitic) "you know, surely", in καίτοι "and yet", μέντοι "however".

9. The particles of the Septuagint

The narrative of the Hebrew Bible joins its clauses with wə- "and". The Greek of the Septuagint renders it with καί far more often than an Attic author would use it, and has few of the particles of §§6–8. In the PTNK training set (Genesis and Ruth, 18,445 words; UD 2.18, counted 2026-10-22):

• καί: 1,406 tokens (76 a thousand words);
• δέ: 459; γάρ: 66; οὖν: 24; ἀλλά: 16; τε: 10; μέν: 5.

The figure for καί is the same as for et in the Latin Vulgate, 75 a thousand words (la chapter 13, §5): two translations of one source, with one rhythm. μέν, the mark of Attic balance, is almost absent. The prepositions follow the Hebrew too:

• ἐν is the commonest (288), often for the Hebrew bə- "in, with, by";
• ἐναντίον and ἐνώπιον render "before the face of" (§3).

(grc-x-koine)

10. How Mova handles it

In the UD trees.

• A preposition is ADP with case, attached to its noun. The noun's Case tells which of the meanings of §2 is meant.
• The coordinating particles are CCONJ with cc (καί, τε, ἀλλά). δέ, γάρ, οὖν are CCONJ or ADV by treebank, often with cc or advmod and sometimes discourse.
• The negatives are ADV or PART with advmod and Polarity=Neg (in PTNK: οὐ 127, μή 74 tokens).

In Mova. What a Greek frames reader needs from this chapter:

1. The case after the preposition for its meaning (§2): the same need as for Latin, and the case is missing from the parser's tags (chapter 11, §8).
2. οὐ and μή read apart: οὐ negates a fact; μή marks a command, a condition or a purpose as not asserted. The English frames reader has not and don't, and its neg and its irrealis marks hold both.
3. The negative concord of §4, which counts two negatives as one: the opposite of the Latin rule and the same as the French and the spoken English one.
4. The particles as discourse links between events: γάρ as cause or explanation, οὖν and ἄρα as inference, μέν … δέ as contrast or balance. The English reader has because, so, but; the Greek ones map onto them, and a particle at the head of every sentence makes Greek prose a gift for a reader of discourse relations.

11. Sources

• Smyth, H. W. 1920 (smyth-1920): §§1636–1702 (prepositions), §§2688–2768 (negatives), §§2769–2999 (particles), paraphrased from the Perseus text (CC BY-SA).
• Denniston, J. D. 1934, The Greek Particles: the standard work; copyrighted and not in our library, so no claim here rests on it.
• UD Ancient Greek PTNK (CC BY-SA 4.0): counts.

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